VOLUME XXIV 1999 Number 2

LIBERIAN STUDIES JOURNAL

MONSERRADO MARGIBI

Published by THE LIBERIAN STUDIES ASSOCIATION, INC.

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The Liberian Studies Journal is dedicated to the publication of original research on social, political, economic, scientific, and other issues about Liberia or with implications for Liberia. Opinions of contributors to the Journal do not necessarily reflect the policy of the organizations they represent or the Liberian Studies Association, publishers of the Journal. Manuscript Requirements

Manuscripts intended for consideration should not exceed 25 typewritten, double-spaced pages, with margins of one-and-a-half inches. The page limit includes graphs, references, tables and appendices. Authors must, in addition to their manuscripts, submit a computer disk of their work, preferably in WordPerfect 6.1 for Windows. Notes and references should be placed at the end of the text with headings, e.g., Notes; References. Notes, if any, should precede the references. The Journal is published in June and December. Deadline for the first issue is February, and for the second, August.

Manuscripts should include a title page that provides the title of the text, author's name, address, phone number, and affiliation. All works will be reviewed by anonymous referees.

Manuscripts are accepted in English and French.

Manuscripts must conform to the editorial style of either the Chicago Manual of Style (the preferred style), or the American Psychological Association (APA) or Modern Language Association (MLA).

All manuscripts intended for consideration should be mailed to:

Amos J. Beyan, Editor; Liberian Studies Journal; Department of History; West Virginia University; 221E Woodburn Hall; Morgantown, West Virginia 26506-6306.

All items relevant to Book Reviews should be mailed to:

Yar D. G. Bratcher, Book Review Editor; Liberian Studies Journal; Emory University; 859 Petite Lane; Lithonia, Georgia 30058

Cover map: Compiled by William Kory, cartography work by Jodi Molnar; Geography Department, University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown.

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LIBERIAN STUDIES JOURNAL Editor, Amos J. Beyan West Virginia University

Associate Editor, Konia T. Kollehlon Book Review Editor, Yar D. G. Bratcher Trinity College, Washington, D.C. Emory University

EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD C. William Allen-University of South D. Elwood Dunn-The University Carolina-Spartanburg of the South Bertha B. Azango-University of Liberia M. Alpha Bah-College of Charleston Warren d'Azevedo-University of Nevada Momo K. Rogers-Kpazolu Media Christopher Clapham-Lancaster Enterprises University Yekutiel Gershoni-Tel Aviv University Thomas Hayden-Society of African Lawrence B. Breitborde-Knox College Missions Romeo E. Philips-Kalamazoo College Svend E. Holsoe-University of Delaware Henrique F. Tokpa-Cuttington University Coroann Okorodudu-Rowan College College of N.J.

LIBERIAN STUDIES ASSOCIATION BOARD OF DIRECTORS Joseph Holloway-President Timothy A. Rainey California State University-Northridge Johns Hopkins University Cyril Broderick-Vice President Emmanuel Dolo Delaware State University University of Minnesota Dianne Oyler-Secretary-Treasurer Ciyata Coleman Fayetteville State University Clark Atlanta University Arnold Odio-Parliamentarian Albany State College FORMER EDITORS D. Elwood Dunn Svend E. Holsoe Edward J. Biggane C. William Allen Jo Sullivan Edited at the Department of History, West Virginia University. The editors and Advisory Board gratefully acknowledge the contributions of Eberly College of Arts and Sciences and the Department of History at West Virginia University in the production of the Journal.

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President William R. Tolbert, Jr. of the Republic of Liberia Addresses His People By President William R. Tolbert, Jr. 1 Valedictory Address of William R. Tolbert, Jr. By William R. Tolbert, Jr. 17 Approaches to the Development and Implementation of a Bilingual Educational Programme in Liberia By Robert H. Brown 30 Environmental Challenges to Liberian Agriculture By Cyril E. Broderick, Sr. and James L. S. Kiazolu 53 Book Reviews Adeleke, Tunde, UnAfrican Americans: Nineteenth-Century Black Nationalists and the Civilizing Mission By Amos J. Beyan 66 Adeleke, Tunde, UnAfrican Americans: Nineteenth-Century Black Nationalists and the Civilizing Mission By Okia J. Opolot 70 Moses, William Jeremiah, Classic Black Nationalism from the American Revolution to Marcus Garvey By Katherine Olukemi Bankole. 73 Warner, J. Ninsel, Africa and Children By Robert H. Brown 79 New Publications and Theses on or Relevant to Liberia 81 Documents 83

A refereed journal that emphasizes the social sciences, humanities, and the natural sciences, the Liberian Studies Journal is a semiannual publication devoted to studies of Africa's oldest republic. The annual subscription rate is US$40.00, US$15.00 for students, and US$50.00 for institutions, and includes membership in the Liberian Studies Association, Inc. All manuscripts and related matters should be addressed to Dr. Amos J. Beyan, Editor; Liberian Studies Journal; Department of History; West Virginia University; 221E Woodburn Hall; Morgantown, West Virginia 26506- 6306. Subscriptions and other business matters should be directed to Dr. Dianne Oyler, Secretary-Treasurer; Liberian Studies Association, Inc.; Fayetteville State University; P.O. Box 14613; Fayetteville, North Carolina 28301-4297. Copyright © 1999 by the Liberian Studies Association, Inc. ISSN 0024 1989

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William R. Tolbert, Jr.

Three weeks have passed since we witnessed the horrible tragedy of April 14, 1979. As government intensifies its efforts to heal the wounds, lift the national spirit and advance the task of reconstruction, I consider it most propitious and incumbent upon me to come to this sacred national shrine, the Centennial Memorial Pavilion, where I took the Oath of Office on January 3, 1972, seven years and four months ago, to speak to the Nation from the very depths of my heart. Since the violent Civil Disturbances which disrupted our peace and threatened our economy and our progress, I have had cause to speak to you on various occasions-through your chosen representatives and the mass media. A number of other Official Statements and press releases have been made on that dastardly event including the upheaval. We have also released a small pamphlet portraying an Official Account of the events of that day. It should now be clear to all that that occurrence was a direct result of an illegal demonstration in defiance of Law and was designed and executed by a group of misguided persons calling themselves the Progressive Alliance of Liberia, aided and abetted by its internal and external collaborators, using the rice-price issue as an alibi. As I see it, the true objective of the illegal and diabolical action was to create a civil disturbance so as to adversely affect our economy and destabilize our government. Thanks to the protective shield of Almighty God who has guided this Nation throughout these 132 years of its history, and the vigilant action of a united people, their design was frustrated. However, our hearts are pained and our heads are bowed over the loss of precious human lives, the destruction of millions of dollars of valuable property and the disrepute brought upon our cherished image of stability and peaceful existence. May Almighty God grant to the souls of those departed, a blissful repose, and comfort the hearts of all bereaved ones.

President Tolbert presented this speech on May 5, 1979, some three weeks following the infamous so-called "rice riot" that almost overthrew his government.

Liberian Studies Journal, XXIV, 2 (1999)

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I have not therefore come merely to reiterate the gory details of what transpired on that day; nor have I come to narrate Government's immediate responses, for this is amply revealed in the Official Account which has been released. Instead, I have come, My Fellow Citizens and Friends, to pour out to you my spirit. I have come to speak to you frankly and candidly about our national promise and prospects. In so doing, I consider it vital and significant that I call to your remembrance the vision which I saw for our Republic as conveyed in my First Inaugural Address delivered from this hallowed shrine on January 3, 1972. And I quote: I view this Nation as an energized Republic, totally involved in reconstruction and development. With an accent on youth and speed, and on competence and effectiveness, I see a dynamic nation propelled by forces of measured movements and lasting results. With undiminishing faith, I see shrinking areas of rural underdevelopment and, rising in their place, I watch the emergence of an increasing consortium of wholesome urbanization and resilient industry. As I gaze across the horizon, I catch the rewarding glimpse of my people, and of foreigners alike, totally involved in the participatory industrialization of our progressive Nation. Dimly before my eyes, I see a vision of the children of this land quenching their thirst for knowledge with cooling drafts of the waters of greater enlightenment, in order that the blights of ignorance may be obliterated, and the brilliance of their future unfolded before them. Releasing themselves from the shackles of a primitive existence, I see a people industrious and strong, reaching into the very depths of their soul, to seize the motivating sparks of courage that would elevate them onto a plateau of creativeness, productiveness, and true self-respect. And then I read in the skies above, that it is our compelling mission to achieve these things, and to bring grace, love and humility to the tenor of human life: for the fate of mankind is our greatest challenge.

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TRANSLATION OF A VISION This then, My Fellow Citizens and Friends, represents the vision which we faithfully conveyed to you as we embarked upon our national stewardship. With reconstructed attitudes of self-reliance and concerted will for total involvement in our thrust toward Higher Heights, we have endeavoured to translate that vision into tangible achievements for our common upliftment as a nation and for the enrichment of humanity. All of you stand as living witnesses to the measure of success, which we have thus far achieved, by the Grace of Almighty God. The fact is well known that our accession to the Presidency coincided with the period when the whole world was experiencing disquieting economic uncertainties, a situation whose consequences have been most difficult for both developed and developing countries. Galloping inflation attained double-digit levels worldwide and a major recession in the demand of primary commodities, including our two principal primary exports, iron ore and rubber, resulted in serious setbacks to our economy. Aggravated by a worsening world currency crisis, an almost constant fall in the value of the US dollar, upon which our economy is based, imposed further hardship for us as we were faced with rising import prices, due mainly to the upward spiraling increases in the price of oil, that vital commodity to national progress. And even now we continue to grapple with further increases in the price of oil. Amidst this situation of global economic recession and stagnation, we were also faced on the domestic scene with a reduction in the growth performance of our gross domestic product, compounded by administrative shortcomings in our revenue generating program, thus causing serious setbacks in Government's expenditure- control measures. We endeavoured to meet that challenge by inspiring into action the resourcefulness of the Liberian People. In so doing we have activated a greater sense of dedication, achievement and enterprise as vital prerequisites in the pursuit of material self-sufficiency through self-reliance and international cooperation. The results of this collective effort by a united and purposeful people have reflected some degree of encouragement. Revenue and receipts have increased from $77.5 million in 1972 to $185.5 million in 1978, an average annual growth rate of over 15 percent. With the enactment of the 1977 Revenue and Finance Law, the regressive 'austerity' tax was abolished, and the income tax structure was made more progressive. As a consequence of tariff harmonization under the Mano River Customs Union, a higher tariff has been imposed on luxury goods; and lower income

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groups have found relief through exemption and the lowering of taxes on 'necessity' commodities. Insofar as the public debt is concerned, outstanding debt (excluding undisbursed) has steadily decreased in relationship to our gross domestic product, accounting for an average annual 4.2 percent between 1971 and 1977, compared with an average annual 8 percent in previous years. We are receiving statistics for 1978-1979 which will be released accordingly. Although our economy is based on the free enterprise system in which prices are determined by market forces, the spiraling inflationary trends of the '70s have caused Government to institute measures to minimize the effects of this economic crisis on the average Liberian consumer. Executive Order No. 2, issued in 1973, authorizes the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Transportation to fix prices at which imported as well as locally manufactured and agricultural commodities are sold. We constituted a special High-Cost-of-Living Commission which visited a number of West African Countries to compare prices and determine how best a successful price reduction program could be implemented to ease the burden on the masses of our citizens. Although the Commission found the prices of commodities in Liberia to be much lower than in the Countries they visited, we have not relented in our efforts to control the prices of essential commodities in the interest of our people. Moreover, we realize that any development in Liberia which fails to give attention to agriculture, in which is engaged more than three-fourths of our population, can hardly be self-sustaining. Thus, we have enunciated programs of action which would give this sector its deserving role in the economy. In pursuance of this Policy, we invested over One Million Dollars in 1972 in a wholly Government-owned mechanized Agricultural Company (AGRIMECO), to spear-head land clearance and development of vast areas to cope with the proliferation of agricultural cooperatives which we have encouraged, nurtured and provided with agricultural extension and technical services. Further diversifying this sector, we have organized crash programs to enable Liberian farmers to move into the cash economy. Along this line, two public corporations have been established to maximize the production of oil palm, cocoa, and coffee. Already, the impact of the revolution in three-crop production is being generally felt throughout the country, more especially in Lofa, Bong, Grand Gedeh and Maryland Counties and the Territories of Sasstown and Kru Coast.

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Our commitment to the indispensable development of our human resources has led us to open the doors of all Government elementary and high schools free to all our school age pupils, and we are subsidizing up to 50 percent tuition, books and board for all College and University students throughout the country. Despite our financial limitations we have extended the benefit of free education to vast areas of our rural population. We certainly have plans to extend same to all parts of our country, and when our resources permit, we will have free education throughout the land. Parallel with this, we have instituted strategic reforms to improve curricula and instructional materials, school administration and supervision. Increasingly have we placed emphasis on technical and vocational education and training to supply the Nation's manpower needs in this vital area. The Booker Washington Institute has been remodeled and is being fully staffed and equipped; and the W.V.S. Tubman Technical College in Maryland County has opened its doors in furtherance of the vocational dimensions of our educational program. Another area of service which we have increasingly improved is our Health and Social Welfare Program. Deeply concerned about the high infant mortality rate, we have expanded our health facilities to include free medical care to prenatal mothers and infants up to two years, and effected appreciable budgetary increases in support of this and related activities. These increases have resulted in the development and expansion of health services within the country, especially in the rural areas where the need is greatest. And we hope, by the Grace of God, when our resources permit us, to even extend free medical care throughout the length and breadth of the Republic. We have reorganized and made more rational and equitable conditions in the Civil Service, and have effectuated three successive salary increments since 1972, with a national fringe benefit scheme for both senior and union civil servants. Vigorously pursuing our policy of Liberianization in the private sector, steady progress is being made in the provision of higher wages, better housing and medical facilities, and greater opportunities for self-fulfillment for our working class. Continuingly being guided by vision which we held out for the Nation, we have sought to ensure an atmosphere where the fruits of our collective labor can be enjoyed with equity and where the dignity of man and respect for fundamental human rights would permeate our thoughts and guide our actions.

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My Fellow Citizens and Friends, I have here endeavoured to capsule our humble endeavors, though moderate they may be, to enable all conscientious individuals, citizens and foreigners alike, void of prejudice and bias, to determine for themselves whether we have not tried to keep the faith with you. We have earnestly and honestly marshaled all our energies even at the expense of my health and my very life to get resources to translate our vision into concrete achievements for the Nation and for all our people. What in 1972 we solemnly promised by the inspiration of Almighty God, we have tried to deliver in a democratic way in our democratic society. While fully realizing the inevitability of change, we have labored to build on the achievement of the past. Espousing continuity and change alike in our policies, we have remained ever conscious of the fact that in order to avoid any semblance of violent change, our policies have been fully accommodative of such peaceful changes as would be consistent and promotive of the aspirations of our people. We have never rested on our oars, and we cannot; for, our experience and conviction continuingly lead us to a full appreciation of the dynamics of our socio-political culture and intervening circumstances of our contemporary world. But our point of reference continues to be the vision which we held out for the Nation as we assumed national leadership. That vision encompassed, as you will no doubt agree, a recognition of the inevitability of change, as well as a commitment to the unassailable ideals which form the very bedrock of this Republic. My Fellow Citizens and Friends, all that I have done conscientiously and with the fear of Almighty God before me, and looking seriously at what occurred on April 14, I am led to ask: "What lack I yet?" I realize my imperfections and my limitations for I am but mortal. I have been searching my soul for the answer, and certainly I can only imagine that the answer is: Continue to give the best within you, and even more sacrificially and faithfully serve the people of Liberia, Africa and mankind throughout our One World. This I am committed to do; So help me God!

INTERRUPTION OF OUR PROGRESS In the midst of our efforts to translate into reality what we envisaged for the Nation; in the midst of our implementation of the social need for orientation of our policies; in the midst of our democratic policy of dialogue with our people on matters of legitimate national concern, came the violent Civil Disturbances of April 14, 1979.

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We now know that the agitation was fomented by covert and overt opponents to our policies specifically conceived, designed for, and being faithfully executed in the interest of the masses, that great majority of our citizens who have been long neglected. We now know that a number of those involved in the illegal demonstration were misled and incited by motives of a subversive and treasonable character. We now know that conspirators and those who aided and abetted the Civil Disturbance include a few inordinate individuals unappreciative of our chosen course for the masses. We also know that there are still others who have sought every means of defeating our program for social cohesion, the building of mutual confidence and the virtue of patience. At any rate, I am speaking according to my conviction, I am persuaded that as one whose faith is firmly rooted in God Almighty, He permitted the occurrence of April 14th for a purpose. He permitted not to destroy Liberia, but to enable us to pause and reexamine ourselves as a people. Are we moving to higher heights together, if not, why? Are we true and sincere to each other, if not, why? Are we loyal, patriot and respectful of legally and legitimately constituted authority, if not, why? Are we not convinced that all avenues to peaceful change are being effectually opened to us all alike? Why would we contemplate a perpetrate lawlessness, destruction and wholly un-Liberian activities? My Fellow Citizens, I call upon each and every one of you to first undertake an objective self-examination, as I am doing, and then join with us as we embark upon a national self-examination so that we can reconstruct our Country.

GOVERNMENT'S RESPONSE TO APRIL 14 As we have already indicated since the awful and shocking events of April 14, Government will, as already begun, uphold the letter and spirit of the Constitution and the laws of the Republic, as well as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to which we have unreservedly subscribed. We do this because we have always held the conviction, and we continue to do so now, that nothing in the life of the Nation can be pursued in an atmosphere of lawlessness and disregard for constituted authority. Our chief concern has been to ensure a full clarification of the entire situation and its attendant circumstances. In this regard, we are still in the process of isolating the hard-core conspirators from those who were innocently caught in the melee as it progressed, and who seized upon the occasion to satisfy their greed and corrupt habits.

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Government will persist in doing what is right and just. We call upon our people to continue to give us their full understanding and to have faith in us. Since the establishment of this Republic, it has always been our way of political development to continuingly improve upon our system of Government, while accepting the realities of our situation at every stage. In this, we have stood for peaceful relevant change. We have demonstrated this by the nature of the programs and policies which we have advanced. We remain continuingly open to new approaches. I have no monopoly ideas; let us all join to build the new Liberia. This is why as we undertake to assess fully the implications of the events of April 14, we have decided to constitute a Commission charged with the responsibility of receiving and analyzing suggestions from concerned citizens for the reconstruction of Liberia, and submitting recommendations for the attention of Government, and I assure you they will be given speedy attention by Government. The Commission of Thirty-one which is chaired by one of the Nation's Elder Statesmen, Counsellor Nete Sie Brownell, includes the following:

Honourable Momolu Dukuly Honourable Henry Ford Cooper Honourable J. Dudley Lawrence Honourable Roland Cooper Honourable Albert T. White Honourable Lawrence Morgan Dr. Christian Baker Mr. Richmond Draper Counsellor Toye C. Bernard Dr. Flomo Stevens Mrs. Corina Van Ee Dr. Patrick L.N. Seyon Bishop George D. Browne Mrs. Sophie Dunbar General Benyan Kesselly Father Edward G.W. King Honourable Nathaniel Baker Professor Abraham James Counsellor Robert Azango

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Honourable Elizabeth Collins Honourable Luvenia Ash-Thompson Mr. John Scotland Honourable George F. Sherman Honourable Ellen J. Sir leaf Honourable David Farhat Honourable Samuel Greene Dr. Stephen Yekeson Mr. Roland Dahn Miss Massa Crayton Dr. D. Elwood Dunn

Within thirty days as of Monday, May 7, 1979, Government will expect to receive the report of the Commission's findings. If you submit it within one week, I will act on it.

GOVERNMENT SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM My Dear Friends, we stand for a Government of human dignity, equity, equal opportunity for, and justice to, all without exception. We fully adhere to this approach in our Foreign Scholarship Program. The basic objective of that program remains that of responding to the national manpower needs in those areas where satisfactory academic and specialized training is not currently available in Liberia. The bases, strictly adhered to, for the granting of scholarships to deserving Liberians include:

1. Priority field already determined by Government. 2. Indications provided by manpower studies. 3. Needs expressed by institutions and agencies of Government. 4. Availability of the candidate's chosen field and level of study in Liberia. 5. Availability of funds for a given year. 6. Preparedness of candidate for proposed field of study.

To aid in the execution of this important program, from which I divorced myself completely, early in our administration we appointed an Ad Hoc Foreign Scholarship Committee which now is composed as follows:

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Professor Agnes Cooper Dennis Chairman Dr. J. Bernard Blamo Chairman Ex-Officio Honourable Bismarck Kuyon Member Dr. D. Elwood Dunn Mrs. Isabel Karnga Honourable James E. Bass Dr. Flomo Stevens Honourable Lawrence V. Sherman Honourable Luvenia Ash-Thompson

These were given terms of reference and are continually expected to act in the best interest of Government and for the benefit of all our people, giving all of them equal opportunity.

CLOSURE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF LIBERIA Because of the subversive actions of some individuals associated with the University of Liberia and their link with PAL, the group styling themselves as the Progressive Alliance of Liberia, it became necessary to close that institution on a temporary basis in order to avoid any eventuality consequent upon the tense conditions occasioned by the defiance of Government's authority. The institution as such is not being charged; neither have all the students, but we know that there are certain lawless elements within its fold. As soon as the latter have been sufficiently identified and Government judges the unlikelihood of any further campus disturbance, timely consideration will be given to reopening the institution so that such meaningful education will be pursued as would instill patriotism and respect for constituted Authority. We are indeed hopeful that it will not be long before the institution is re-opened, for I am anxious to see young people return to their classes.

EMBEZZLEMENT OF PUBLIC FUNDS The Policy of this Government in respect to those who embezzle public funds is never to shield or protect them from justice. On the contrary, once they have been discovered through the vigilance of our auditing system and the National Force for the Eradication of Corruption, they are turned over to the Courts for prosecution in strict accordance with the law. It is the Courts that must do their duties and see that

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punishments are meted out to those who have done injustice to the Republic of Liberia.

DEVELOPMENT IN BENTOL CITY When by legislative enactment Bentol City was made the Capital of Montserrado County, appropriate steps were taken to give the new Capital a face-lift which would make it representative of the County. The Legislature authorized this. Accordingly, roads were built and an Administrative Building and Superintendent's residence were constructed at a cost of nearly two and one-quarter million dollars. Also undertaken were the construction of a market house, experimental low cost houses, a Youth center and the expansion of the school facilities, raising the Junior High School to the level of a Senior High School, all at a total cost of $1,809,567.20. Finding the natural scenic beauty of the area to be attractive for tourists, plans along this line were concluded and implemented for an artificial lake at a total cost of $235,000.00. In this public lake fish will be cultivated for the people. Some of the citizens of the area, in response to our call to return to their homes and assist in its development, have thus gone to Bentol and are making their contributions to the development effort. Our own modest endeavor to improve what we personally possess has been of absolutely no cost to Government; the Ministry of Public Works can bear this out. For in all sincerity, we would not attempt to betray our sacred trust, and God stands as our righteous judge.

THE GUINEA TROOPS With reference to the Guinean troops currently in Liberia, let me make it clear that we made the decision after much agonizing. My Fellow Citizens, you do not know what I went through that night but God knows. We accepted the brotherly offer of President Ahmed Sekou Toure during what appeared to have been one of our darkest hours, and at a trying moment when we were convinced that the action would help save precious human lives and property, and assist in restoring peace and order. Nevertheless, it was only after consultation with the leaders of state in the Legislature, the National Security Council and the Chief of Staff, that we considered it in the best interest of the security of the state to accept the assistance offered. The troops came under the umbrella of our Mutual Defense Pact, and have been available; but they have never been involved in any incident. I now feel convinced

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that there is no further need for their presence. Accordingly, they will be returning home within the next few days. Within the framework of the fraternal relations between Guinea and Liberia, and on the basis of an understanding between my Brother, President Toure, and myself, a Contingent of our Army will before long be making a friendly visit to the Republic of Guinea and will participate in military exercises with them as well. My Fellow Citizens, as your Captain at the helm of the Ship of State on April 14, we saw a huge iceberg, as it were, and decided to direct the course of our sailing in this manner to avoid collision. We consequently took what, in our best judgement and under God's guidance, were the necessary measures, to safeguard the security of the State. I take the full responsibility for the action, under the sure conviction that it was in the best interest of the Republic of Liberia. On balance, I am pleased to state that the Liberian Army has proved itself loyal, patriotic and in a great measure, effective. Whatever deviation that occurred on that occasion is being thoroughly investigated and appropriate action will be taken in the premises. We have had several meetings with high ranking officers of the Army as well as with non-commissioned officers and some enlisted men and many facts have been revealed of which we had no previous knowledge. We will give immediate attention to problems as we find them existing so as to occasion the needed efficiency, discipline and effectiveness in the Army and thus improve its services at all levels. But no matter how well the Army performs its duty to the State, the fact remains that it is the people as a whole-the entire citizenry-that must defend and protect our country and the Government. I therefore call upon you, My Fellow Citizens, to shoulder this fundamental and patriotic duty of defending and preserving this our sacred heritage given to us by Almighty God.

DECISIONS NOW TO BE MADE There are a few decisions which we consider necessary to make at this time. They are as follows: 1. While we will continue to guarantee to all of our people and all persons within our borders the enjoyment of their human rights and fundamental freedom, including the Freedom of the Press, we will demand, as the occasion requires, that no one commit any infringement upon the rights of others and abuse the rights accorded them. Neither will we at any time

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countenance a disregard for constituted authority, and flagrant and irresponsible defiance of law and order. 2. Government will take firm and swift action against any group or individual who, by sowing seeds of discord, disharmony and divisiveness in our Country, disturbs our peace and adversely affects our development and progress. 3. Our city remains overcrowded with vagrants, citizens and aliens alike. In accordance with our vagrancy laws, immediate action will be taken to clear our city of all such persons. Those who are not citizens and who are not gainfully employed will be required to return to their homes, because we know that on that occasion, the greatest amount of the looting and destruction of property was done by foreigners and not Liberians. 4. While Government will shortly embark on measures to facilitate the entry of bona fide businessmen, tourists and other visiting friends, stringent measures will be taken to check illegal entrants. 5. All wayward youths of our city will shortly be removed from our streets and placed in corrective institutions. Arrangements are currently being made with Episcopal Bishop George D. Browne for the use of the Episcopal School building at Dodokeh near Pleebo in Maryland County to complement the National Center for Care, Correction and Rehabilitation of Juvenile Delinquents soon to be constructed in Careysburg. In the interim, we will endeavor to find other locations to accommodate their removal from our streets and I call upon all of our people to operate together with us in this national enterprise. 6. Government, through the Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Affairs and Commerce, Industry and Transportation, in collaboration with Bankers and other financiers, is studying the effects of the events of April 14 on the national economy, and in the next fortnight the public will be duly informed of our actions in the premises. I have received reliable information that the insurance companies will honour their legitimate obligations, growing out of the events of April 14. In the meanwhile, Government is determined now, more than ever before, to operate on the strictest economy. 7. I call upon Ministers of the Gospel to preach the word of God in truth and sincerity and not use the Pulpit or their sacred commission to sow seeds of disunity, disharmony, discord, confusion and divisiveness among the children of God-the People of Liberia.

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8. So that high virtues and morality may be inculcated among students, I direct that the Holy Bible, the Holy Koran and such other religious codes of conduct as would be compatible with our national culture, be introduced and made required subjects to be taught in all Public Schools; Freedom of Religion being granted to all, in their choice of religious study, in keeping with our Constitution. 9. I further direct that civics and ethics be made compulsory subjects taught in all schools-both public and private-so that patriotism and moral conduct and sound principles in living may be inculcated in the minds of our youth. 10. I direct that rigid discipline be introduced and enforced in all schools throughout the land, and all persons, students as well as professors, be prohibited from engaging in any and all activities in our institutions of learning that would tend to promote tribalism and sectionalism and cause disunity, disharmony, and divisiveness among the students and the people of Liberia.

When I spoke to the Legislature, I said there will be hard decisions to take. I am taking those decisions and as I take even harder decisions, the people of this Country will be notified.

CONCLUSION My Fellow Citizens and Friends, my experience in Government has caused me to reach the unmistakable conclusion that the problems of Liberia are socioeconomic in nature. Upon my assumption of the Presidency, I entertained the strong feeling that the masses of the people are anxious for more schools, roads, clinics, hospitals and such basic infrastructural facilities as water systems, electricity and communications. As we faced these imperatives, these social needs indispensable to the Wholesome Functioning Society which we envisaged, we did so against the cruel realities of economic restraints. Our complex problems can evidently not be solved by agitation but by continuing commitment, patience and perseverance and working together. Through our policy of self-reliant development the people have enthusiastically responded in an effort to minimize the restraints. We renew to them Government's appreciation for this great national service, and appeal to them not to relent in our task of nation- building. Liberia must be built by all of us so that all of us can enjoy it.

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To all of the political sub-divisions of our Country, to the National Legislature, our Grand Old True Whig Party, the Militia and other men in arms, Students, Women's Organizations, Trade Unions and to all our law-abiding people at home and abroad, we gratefully and humbly acknowledge your statements and messages affirmative of your faith and confidence in our national stewardship. With such heartening, strengthening and uplifting indications and demonstrations of support, and solidarity, I invite you, all of you, the sovereign people of the Republic of Liberia, to join hands with me as we, totally involved, undertake the sacred task of national reconstruction. Let us always bear in mind the motto of the True Whig Party, "Deeds, not Words." A prerequisite to this imperative, however, is national introspection. We must examine ourselves and our entities of interaction. We must examine the structures for the implementation of policy. There must be a veritable SPIRITUAL RECONSTRUCTION, if the PHYSICAL RECONSTRUCTION is to be enduring, as it must. All employees of the Government, at all levels, must comport themselves in a manner reflective of true and faithful servants, remembering at all times that as trustees, we are continuingly accountable to the people. Let us prove ourselves worthy servants indeed. My Fellow Citizens, the tendency has developed among some of our people to indulge in the habit of disseminating false and misleading information about individuals in our society. This evil practice, adverse to a Wholesome Functioning Society, often takes the form of writing anonymous letters and employing fictitious names rather than patriotically reporting action or activities inimical to the national interest. Many times people write me and sign, "Concerned Citizen." If you are indeed concerned, sign your authentic name. I invite, in this public manner, responsibly signed information on any known irregularities in the operation of Government. And I am sincere. If anyone knows something, write and sign your name and send it to me. You will see what will happen thereafter. I assure you that as much as possible confidentiality will be protected, but thorough investigation will precede any action so that there may be no violation of human rights and the innocent may be safeguarded. I cannot go out, My Fellow Citizens and Friends, and take action against anyone except there are evidences that that individual had done something worthy of such action. Finally, the events of April 14 have indeed occasioned "stringent tests of our faith, exacting measures of our courage; searching scrutinies of our purpose." In

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availing ourselves equal to the challenge, let us fully ensure that our total response provides "rigid determination of the dynamic strength of our will to achieve." Let us, therefore, in full assurance that our cause is just, calm our fears and restore confidence in ourselves and our institutions; for I remain firm in the conviction that a stronger Liberia with an even more united people will emerge from the tragedy just experienced. Let us fervently and repentantly beseech Almighty God mercifully to forgive us individually and collectively of all and every sin we have committed, and with thanksgiving for His bountiful blessings vouchsafed unto us as a Nation, and for His deliverance, rise to a newness of life. Now, as never before, is the time for unity, cohesiveness and peace. I accordingly call upon our people to abandon hate, selfishness, greed and corruption, and let us as a united people, genuinely caring for and sharing with one another in love, operate together for our collective self-fulfillment. In consideration of the spontaneous expression of concrete support and solidarity which we have received from our neighbours and all our foreign friends, I could not end this Address without publicly renewing particularly to President Ahmed Sekou Toure and the People of Guinea, People of the Ivory Coast, our sentiments of deep gratitude and sincere appreciation on behalf of the Government and People of Liberia and in my own name. My Dear Friends, with discipline restored to our body politic and the national spirit infused anew with an even greater sense of responsibility and commitment, let us go forth together and heal the Nation's wounds. Let us reconstruct our country with faith in Almighty God and reliance on self. Above all, let us maintain at all times, one Nation, indivisible, with individual liberty and justice for all. MAY ALMIGHTY GOD BLESS THE WORKS OF OUR HANDS AND SAVE THE REPUBLIC OF LIBERIA.

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Valedictory Address of William R. Tolbert, Jr.

William R. Tolbert, Jr. *

His Excellency

You whose interest, in our education has been supreme, You who have made the facilities not in vain, You whose mind has been elevated to most lofty plains, You who count all motives sinister and insane Which tend to rob our State and School of its glorious fame, Lend me your ears for `tis to you that I am speaking.

Board of Trustees

Ye who the machinery of our Alma Mater supervise, Ye who launch all schemes that are wise, And redound to the prosperity of Liberia; Ye who will live and expire without fear, Because you've made your contribution That will be stones in the structure of our Nation, Ye who say though men may come or men may go But let the work forever go, Lend me your ears, for `tis to you that I am speaking.

Members of the Faculty

Ye who with graceful steps tread to our College day by day, Ye who while it has been day, Instilled in us and we have made hay; Ye who through assiduous endeavors, Not to gain any prize that would be yours, But to remove the dross which the gold might conceal, Ye who out of youths unrefined, have men of noble minds created, Lend me your ears, for `tis to you that I am speaking.

Lovers of Literature or Respectful Audience

Ye whose hearts are fresh and simple, Who have faith in God and Nature, Who believe that in all ages every human heart is human, That in even savage bosoms there are longings, yearnings, strivings, For the good they comprehend not,

*Tolbert gave this speech at Liberia College, now the University of Liberia, in April 1934, some 37 years before he became President of Liberia.

Liberian Studies Journal, XXIV, 2 (1999)

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That their feeble hands and helpless, Groping blindly in the darkness, Touch God's right hand in that darkness, And are lifted up and straightened, Lend me your ears for `tis to you that I am speaking.

Student Body

Ye who the onward way do ascend, Keep your eyes stayed on the precious gem. Ye who once our Fellow Gownsmen were, Let not the vision from your sight disappear, Ye who love the haunts of Nature And seek to explore its enrichments day by day, Lend me your ears, for 'us to you that I am speaking.

Vulgar Rabble

Ye who the lower rungs of the ladder do occupy, Ye who venerable Horace style uninitiated rabble, Preserve silence and lend me your ears, For, `tis to you that I am speaking.

The pendulum has swung, fleeting hours most perceptibly have glided by, twilight appeared, upon us did Erebus hover his shady wings, and finally a new day is now proclaimed by these who have fathomed the depths of our intellects. With joyful hearts do we welcome you to join us in greeting this early dawn with its compensating rhythms. Not uncustomary has it been, for this our Alma Mater to demonstrate to you on occasion as this the fruits of her labor. It was our delight to occupy those seats, behold the ceremonious proceedings, pregnant with elements of constructive covetousness, and eagerly long for this our Day to dawn. The ever rolling wheel of time, which duly brings to plodding faithful and preserving beings, their deserved rewards, has most inevitably rolled with us as we must tenaciously held fast to its main spokes, to this ideal goal which was not won by sudden flight, but we, while our companions slept, were toiling upward in the night. Sleep did not make us subservient to the fascinating and sometimes most powerful effects upon our heavy eyelids. Now do we stand upon the threshold and view the eventualities of the past and foretell those of the future. The seed that is sown in the earth germinates, buds, blossoms, produces fruits and finally decays without being taught a single lesson. Even in its embryonic

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state it does not learn the lesson of osmotic absorption but as soon as certain circumstances favor this condition, it is readily employed. The fish in the brine ocean is not taught how to swim or how to exert its energies in making a livelihood. The bird is led from the nest to batter its wings in space without having been given a single instruction in the execution of this act. The predatory birds and animals are thoroughly equipped to be able to execute their particular employments and they become busily engaged in their pursuits as soon as they arrive at a certain period in their life. The old tree is not taught how to evolve into diamond which is quarried after many years. But man, that unitary psychophysical organism, that triune being who in addition to his animal propensities that are grafted in his nature, and who also possesses psychical and spiritual natures, is the most helpless and the one who is in most need of instruction during the period of immaturity. He has to be taught to do almost everything in the right way. Let us get a mental picture of Prehistoric man. See him standing on those plains in his primitive, childlike manner, mere sport to the elements and a prey to the ferocious beast. An object of pity indeed is he. Picture him as he trembles, crouches and hides when an alarm is made of the approach of what he now calls the lower animals. He demonstrated the inferior power then. But did he remain in this state long? No. He began to make use of speculations and with stone and sticks, his consciousness having been awakened, he gained the mastery of former dominating forces. For quite a while his superiority was not regarded with terror until he encountered several diurnal and nocturnal attacks with his then only combatants. But ere long the animal propensities were awakened among themselves to a very great degree and thereby a new phase of contests and struggle arose. Man then began to fight with man. Better and more improved weapons were then needed in warfare between family against family, clan against clan, tribe against tribe, etc. We find a gradual improvement as time rolled on until the period of real brain growth, when Nature's resources were ransacked for deadlier invention and more scientific discoveries were made out of the struggles to conquer the other in physical power. And is Man yet satisfied? No. He is still carrying the principles of Civilization and his acquisitive nature has wrought in him the incurable tendency of approximating the remote and familiarizing the miracle; and not only is he to be considered as the fighter and subduer of the brute creation or the conqueror of one another either defensively or offensively, but also as a being who possesses diversities of capacities and capabilities.

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With such a species of creation is education principally concerned. The lower animals become aware of their external surroundings and they adapt themselves to those things that are necessary and conducive to their well-being and development and maintenance, by a mere application of instinct; but man needs more than instinctive power. The fact cannot be denied that he exists by instinct but he progresses by intelligence. He must be taught how to use those instinctive powers so as not to thralls to his animal propensities. In tracing the advancement of man, his first stage of progress was that of supine security as that found in the plants, the second was a period in which he allowed himself to be controlled by his instinct and the third stage on which he is now acting, is that of thought and intelligence. Assurance is his now that acting well on the stage he will realize his hopes and ambitions. He will say to space "be annihilated" and to time "be no more"; and they shall obey his voice. Then that which has enabled such a being to be a master of himself and to maintain his heritage, be it national or patrimonial that is handed down to him, the pursuit of which serves as a great distinguishing feature between him and the brute creation, that which makes him able to smile at the very face of disappointment and with a composed mentality await the advent of favorable circumstances, that which is the main spoke in the wheel which precipitates National prosperity forms the subject of our Address.

EDUCATION AS RELATED TO CIVIC PROGRESS True education connotes the drawing out, as the derivation of the word shows, and the development of all the human faculties and the preparation of the man or woman for the duties and responsibilities of life. Education is the adopter which will make the nomadic spirit of freedom of self-reliance compatible with the cooperation, wealth and security of Civilization. It is the preparation of the individual for the Community and his religious training is the core. Civic Prosperity means prosperity of or pertaining to the State; but as we all know that men make Nations or in other words the State is composed of citizens and those factors make its development possible or its decadence final and fall inevitable, so the term really connotes the prosperity of the citizens as parts of the State. In considering the term Education, the well informed must associate in his thoughts the following parts which go to make that great unity of ideas: Physical or Moral Education, Intellectual Education, and Industrial Education.

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How many persons have been seen to possess one or two of these parts and yet totally ignorant of the other two or one. It is one thing to possess an education and it is another to be truly educated. It is one thing to be educated and it is another thing to obtain the right kind of education. There is one kind of education that makes a life glow and sparkle with joy, success and service; a kind that makes a life cast vibration that cheers, that illuminates, that animates his fellow man and that makes a being the possessor of qualities that are compatible with the cooperation and not inconsistent with rational projects that tend to the advancement of his brother, the well-being of his race, the prosperity of the nation and the confederation of the world. There is another kind of education that produces a narrow, morbid, selfish, miserable and conceited standard of living; a kind that makes a man be skeptical and fight projects just because they emanate from persons with whom he is antagonistic. Education to such a one is a dangerous and unprofitable weapon. It would have redounded much to his betterment, had he been allowed to grope his way blindly in the path of ignorance and his mind had not been emancipated to his detriment. Socrates' greatest teaching was "Know Thyself." Francis Bacon came upon the scene and did not fail to propound a similar doctrine in these words: "Seek ye first the good things of the mind and all other things shall be added or their loss will not be sustained." The first thing that intellectual education does for a man is to arouse him from a sense of indifference, sloth, contentedness and self-disrespect. When one has spent a number of years in the development of the mind in or out of school, he or she realizes that the divine Providence has destined him or her to play some great part in the World reconstruction, and that concealed from ocular demonstrations are latent qualities which when developed will aid in accomplishing the end for which he or she has been created. As this truth dominates his or her thoughts, he or she decides to become an important factor in the progress. This is the first step towards civic progress: For if you would have a man seek earnestly after prosperity or anything, you must first convince him that he stands in need of it or that particular thing and that it is conducive to his benefits as well as to those with whom he comes in contact. He must be impressed that something beneficial will be derived therefrom. Then the fact does not lack clarity nor it remain to be proved that Intellectual Education awakens in man the intense desire to be prosperous.

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Education makes a man patriotic. For example, when an intellectual Liberian reads the history of our Republic and associates in his consciousness the pathetic thought of our forefathers, how they shed blood to maintain and hand down this noble heritage unimpaired to their posterity, a feeling of love, pride and patriotism wells up within his bosom. His patriotic zeal is intensely aroused to follow the steps of his predecessors. By so doing he strives to keep the yarns of this national fabric from becoming rent and its protection is voluntarily and most unconsciously given. By doing this, he automatically builds up, and protects himself and his home, thereby Civic Prosperity is made possible. Robert Owen, the founder of modern socialism declares that men and women are largely the product of their educational environment. So true and clear is this statement that it is unnecessary to make any further comments on it. Education multiplies the wants of men. Man in his ignorant state is contented to know nothing, to do nothing, to have nothing and consequently to be nothing; but the man whose faculties have been thoroughly developed, he yearns and longs to explore the Universe. To the result of these longings, we owe the progress, prosperity, and grandeur of the past centuries. The magnetic telegraph, the cotton gin, the Atlantic Cable, the telephone, the steam engine, the phonograph, the X-rays, the airplane and the radio, could not have been made possible, had not such master- minds as Morse, Stevenson, Whitney, Field, Bell, Edison, Roentgen, Copernicus, Tycho Brahe, Kepler, Newton, Harvey, Leuwenhoek, et al., attempted the task. These discoveries and inventions, these triumphs over physical forces, all of which are the results of intelligent men, have contributed and are still contributing to make men and Nations prosperous. The State stands in need of assets and not liabilities to manage its affairs, as guardians of the public honour, as administrators of the public affairs, as preservers of the public peace and as makers of the laws that are to face the legislations of other developed Nations, and which must bind great men whose minds have been liberated and at the same time don't fail to make provision for the commoner folks, these men must be intelligent else the old ship of state will be driven upon a strata of rocks. They must be able to give no heed to the fascinating lures of National Sirens and to distinguish philanthropic gifts from Grecian ones, impregnated with mischief. If Liberia must be preserved, if she must bask in the sunshine of National prosperity and always be able to dictate her own policies, the strata of ignorance which is widening within her borders must be totally uprooted. Premium must be put on education, for it alone promises National salvation.

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Education will preserve the race. As we become acquainted with the laws of health and to know ourselves as centers of creative evolutions; when we realize that we are generating points around which great circles can be described, we become more careful with our lives that we become contaminated with diseases that might impede our divine ennoblement. If we must be prosperous as a Nation we must have Mentes sanae in corporbus sanis. Mr. H. G. Wells states that "the greatest task upon which the human intelligence is engaged, is a World Wide System of Education; A universal Education which will reach all classes of people." Education should be solely under the control of the Government; because it is she that will have to deal with such people and have them solve her problems and sympathize with her hardships. It is a very good thing for the Liberian Youth to know that the greatest peril to this democracy, which we are fond and proud to boast of, lies in the illiteracy of the Liberian Youth; but it is still better to have the Youth become not wholly satisfied with the narrow, low standard and misleading sort of education that is imparted by some whose chief motives are to dwarf our intellectual capabilities and to make an easy livelihood in this glorious land of liberty. It is misleading in that, the youth is impressed that a High School Training-not even of the highest type-is quite sufficient to carry one through life. Yes it might be sufficient if one always wants to be dictated to and never become a dictator. Remember well what Pope says:

"A little learning is a dangerous thing, Drink deep or taste not the Pirene Spring These shallow draughts intoxicate the brain But drinking deep sobers us again."

Ask Japan today what has made her so prosperous and able to launch such a deadly war against foreign trade; and she will tell you that she saw that it was impossible to play a great part in this international drama except she have her youths and maidens equipped to stand the task of Nation-Building. She will tell you that it was compulsory on her to send them away, especially those who demonstrated that they were not laggards but capable of becoming masterminds, to foreign parts where greater advancement was being made and it was there that they learned the arts of intellectual as well as physical education, and returned to the glory and betterment of their land.

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Ask America, Poland, Russia and the same answer will be given. How can Philosophers, rulers govern uneducated men, or how can political giants be created out of intellectual dwarfs? We must be grateful to Christianity for plowing the ground for the harvest of popular education. A writer states that, "Men's loyalties, and the sides they take in political things are not innate but they are educational results." If this is true then how necessary it is that sacrifice should be made by individuals as well as the State to have the youth thoroughly educated for the modern citizen be informed first before he can be consulted; before he can vote he must be able to understand the evidence. It is not by setting up polling-booths, but by establishing schools and making literature and knowledge and news universally accessible that the way is opened from servitude and confusion to that of a willing cooperative state which is the modern ideal. Until a man has education a vote is a dangerous and useless thing for him to possess. Through a speech, society was evolved by man; through society, intelligence; through intelligence, order; and through order, civilization. Can we presently boast of being evolved to this height when we still have thousands of our inhabitants still on the Neolithic plains? May the day dawn ere long when educational opportunity will be afforded every individual in the Rural Districts, and we will have teachers and professors who are really able to deliver the goods, and not persons placed in these sacred positions to lead blindly our youths still deeper into the intricate maze of ignorance. Shall you who have not made this sacrifice, you who have not drunk from the fountain of education appreciate this quality in others who have made it, and not maliciously oppose them on the account of jealousy. Think ye not that it is more profitable to the State and the Race in its entirety, for you to sit and'only watch those who are able to control affairs? Seek not for a chance except you are aware of the fact that your capabilities will permit you not to be a liability. Oh! how much imbued with the spirit of the betterment of Liberia extinction of ignorance to an infinitesimal point and the preservation of the Race have our leaders been that today they are launching schemes that will bring it about that Brain Force will dominate this our dear country. Some regard this act as one which is intended to keep only a certain class of people, that is, of a particular locality in Government positions; but rational and unbiased minds are so quick to penetrate the epidemic shades and having reached the very core of it, have concluded that it is the

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only means by which competency will be debarred from public offices. It is conducive to Civic Prosperity in that it will urge the youth to be prepared for service. He will then know that he no longer can conceal his ignorance under the cloak of his progenitors, but he must stand on his own bottom as the common saying runs. Let this Act become effective and the practice of idle street gossiping to a very great extent will be uprooted and the intense desire of preparedness and efficiency substituted in its place. This indeed shall then be a Republic of Plato's type. Cicero tells us that the acquirement of Education is the greatest and best thing that a man can do. For says he:

"Haec studia adulescentiam alunt, senectutem oblectant, secundas res ornant, adversis perfugium ac solacium praebent, delectant domi, non impediunt foris, pernoctant nobi scum, peregrinantur rusticuntur."

"These studies nourish youth, delight old age, provide shelter and solace in adversity, give pleasure at home, do not hinder abroad they remain with us during the night watches they travel abroad with us, they are in the Country with us."

Moral Education has to do with the development of the psychical nature, the anima itself. To whatever extent the other faculties are developed, however strong, wealthy and learned the man, if he is not psychically developed, he cannot taste of the nirvana of prosperity. When man is so developed, he recognizes his moral obligations his own rights as well as the rights of others; then there is no need for jails, penitentiaries, gallows, and law courts. Every crime that has been committed can be traced back to some violation of the moral laws by somebody. You have often stood in the Court rooms when men were being tried for their lives; and after the trial you have listened to the judge in his solemn manner pronounce sentence of death upon the prisoner before the bar. There is the State at the loss of one more of her Citizens doomed to eternity, one more family bowed down somewhere in grief and shame, one more vicious sheet placed in the history of times to be read by generations present and to come, a few more pounds for the State to pay as the cost of the prosecution. Education will cause this tragic drama to cease being enacted and will keep the gigantic head of that horrid monster, Crime, from being reared.

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Prosperity whispers: "Develop all the potentialities of the mentality, body and anima, and though you be as white as snow, though you be as red as crimson, though your skin be as black as the shades of Erebus before the dawn of day, you will find me not distant from your desire." Ignorance is sin and the very shackles of slavery but education alone is salvation.

VALEDICTORY Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Board of Trustees, I, at this juncture, must voice the sincere sentiments of my Classmates in extending to you our gratitude for the manner in which you have so manipulated the machinery of the College that today it is able to produce such fruits that will prove assets to the Republic. We can assure you that your labors have not been in vain, but rather the seeds which through your instrumentality have been sown, will in the future bring forth abundant fruits to your honour and glory. As we breathe a tender and earnest adieu, we implore your gracious aid in this arena of life. As we struggle through this great University of Life, each day learning a new lesson, Oh! may we always be looked upon by you as the sons of your hands that we might realize that it was worthwhile for us to make the great sacrifice that we have made. Most honored Instructors: Can words suggest the tenderness of our feelings towards you on this occasion? Can tears demonstrate the indebted gratitude? Ah no! There are some tasks which one does against his or her will only to please another. There are others which are voluntarily shouldered by individuals and performed with the greatest exactness of perfection. Such is the task that I feel my unworthiness to measure up to; but it is my humble exhortation that you regard these ostentatious embellishments of gratitude as being the index of burning emotions for you. Someone will ask, what is the nature of such emotions and why have they been engendered? To such a one, I would reply without any reservations, that these emotions have been engendered in the breast of the Class of 1934, because you have so patiently measured up to the task of liberating our mentalities from the shackles of ignorance. Yea, you have not had an easy task to create out of unrefined youths, men possessed with noble minds. Minds that are individual and not that type which can be molded to the whims and fancies of external forces. Minds that have the momentum to be creative. Such was your task. A gigantic one indeed. What can we offer as a compensation? Do you say nothing? Not, For what honor or fame to which we may arise, that will redound to your credit, and your names shall be indelibly

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inscribed upon the hearts of men. Posterity shall declare of your undying glory and all humanity shall be elevated to higher plane. We do feel, Dear Dean, that something beneficial has been derived from the (seemingly) taxing duty of studying Sum and its compounds; The Essays and Sonnets which we from time to time were asked to produce, truly have made it possible for us to have at our command, a vocabulary of words and the ability to use them correctly. My intellectual grocery is destitute of words to express our thanks to you for the unswerving interest in not only us-but also in this our Land of Nativity. No day was too rainy or any pain too severe to keep you away from your task. Such a one as you, who have for your motto Non Honoribus sed laboribus, cannot but expect of us that your technicalities have made us to be very particular in the production of what is required of us. We can assure you that your precepts shall be our Arcady and Tyrian Cynosure throughout the period of our vitality. We cannot glide by without assuring our philosophical Dr. T. Ebenezer Ward that his theories of divine embodiment and physical development have taken a very deep root in our souls and it is certain that they will constitute the essence of our lives. We followed you as you demonstrated to us that in the Binomial Theorem when "a" the first term of a Binomial is raised to the zero power the other term of that factor is raised to the exponent of that Binomial. This principle can be well applied in the practical life. Time would not permit to relate in details how you led us down into that great pyramid and from thence brought forth some of the most wonderful truths upon which the machinery of this World is run. Can we abandon from our memories the Seven Hermetic Principles-The Principle of Mentality, The Principle of Vibration, The Principle of Cause and Effect, The Principle of Gender, The Principle of Rhythm, The Principle of Correspondence and The Principle of Polarity and the real elements of Civilization? No! Compose your mind with the pleasant thought that you will not only live in our thoughts but also in our lives. When we realize that the World is not now being conquered by force of arms but by magnanimity of soul, and by scientific explorations, we cannot but register our deep and sincere gratitude to our most venerable and capable science Professors in the persons of Mrs. Anna E. Cooper and Dr. R.W. Payne. If ever we become imbued with the idea of revolutionizing this our Country, the credit will be given to these Creators, the one who made us know ourselves as we are through the science of Physiological Chemistry, and the other who directed our sights as we took telescopic observations of the Sun, the Moon, Mars, Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, and others, We can never forget of the personal lectures that were given us on occasions

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and you can rest assured that we will ever keep before us your precepts as we progress through life. To our dear Secretary of the Faculty who struggled with us through our Collegiate Course, and who always labors most assiduously to make Occasions of this nature as grand as possible, and for the personal interest in this Class of 1934, I voice the sentiments of my Class to extend to you our deep gratitude and to impress you that your actions toward us will remain unerasable upon the sheets of our memory until some day in whatever humble sphere, the opportunity will present itself for us to reciprocate. To you our fellow Gownsmen and Student Body: We bid you farewell not to meet you in those hallowed concrete walls and there mingle our voices together but to meet you respectively in the great drama of life. "Life has meaning," says Browning, and let it be your and our task to find out its meaning. Struggle on until you reach to the goal, remembering, "That he who putteth his hand to the plow and turneth back is not fit for the Kingdom of Heaven." Let this symbolical expression mean something to you as you advance in your scholastic life as you meet up with difficulties and mental fatigues. Keep your eyes staid upon the precious gem and remember that he who wears the crown must first bear a cross. Seek diligently for that light, transform it into love and finally into life. Seek the truth for only that will set you free. And to you my Fellow Classmates and Friends: I am now performing a task of a duo-fold nature; a task of solemnity and hilarity. The solemn aspect infuses itself when we bring to our reminiscence the past four joyous years which we have spent together exchanging our views and forming what shall always be ours. Ah! you

will agree with me when 1 say this occasion is a solemn one when the fact is realized that we are now launching our little craft away, away from the shipyard of the stocks, away from the Master Builder's hands. Ah! as we sail upon the rugged seas of life, we become serious, when we realize that our own eyes must now watch our compass and scan our chart; our own hands must hold the rudder. It behooves us well to step cautiously as we cross the threshold and emerge into the dazzling sunlight and into the deafening din and tumultuous whirls of this busy world. We stand together for the last time as a Class: But ah! the hilarious aspect presents itself when we realize this goal which we have long been striving for. Dreams have now come true and hopes and imaginations have been made realities. What drama can rival these scenes or what fiction can match the pleasant imaginations of their realizations! We know that we have reared from ourselves monuments. Oh! may we step forth confident in

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the fact that the friendship which we have formed during our scholastic career will still characterize our actions the one to the other. May we stand out as beacon lights in whatever Community we may reside and let the vibrations from us illuminate the dark corners of the soul of some forlorn brothers. Let us remember that along with rights there are duties, along with liberty there are responsibilities and along with privileges there are obligations. Finally as I bid you adieu, let me entreat you in the words of a poet of no mean ability, a poet of whom we are proud, because he is the product of our Race: "We are facing the rising sun of our new day begun, Let us march on till victory is won."

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Approaches to the Development and Implementation of a Bilingual Educational Programme in Liberia

Robert H. Brown*

INTRODUCTION In the beginning, we are told in Genesis Chapter 11 that God created a monolingual community on earth. In other words, at the beginning of this Bible story, everyone spoke the same language. But when the inhabitants of this monolingual community tried to build a tower to reach heaven, God became angry. As a result, he made many languages so that the inhabitants of this monolingual community could not understand and help one another. Thus, God's decision to thwart man's plan to build the Tower of Babel has resulted in thousands of languages being spoken throughout the world today. There are now 5,000 different languages and many dialects or local versions of major languages. A little less than 2,000 of these languages are found in Africa. A significant minority of these languages are spoken in West Africa. These different languages account for the phenomenon of bilingualism and/or multilingualism. This means that West Africa is an area replete with linguistic and cultural diversity. The linguistic and cultural diversity has created language problems in the educational systems of Anglophone West African countries such as Ghana, Liberia,

* Dr. Robert H. Brown earned his Ph.D. in Linguistics and Literature at the University of Essex, United Kingdom, in 1989. Following his studies, he returned to his native land, Liberia, where he taught at the University of Liberia. Dr. Brown has published several scholarly articles. He and his family currently reside in England. In addition to works of others cited, the study is also informed by the author's previous following works: "The Need for a Bilingual Education in the Third Republic." Liberian Studies Journal, vol. XXII, no.1, 1997; "Some Problems of Writing in Liberia and Prospects for Liberian Writers." Liberian Studies Journal, vol, XX, no. 1, 1995; "A Sociolinguistic Study of Language Attitudes Among Selected Tertiary Liberian Bilinguals and Their Attained Proficiency in ESL." Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Essex (U. K.), 1989; "Some Problems in the Teaching of African Literature at the Tertiary Level in Liberia and Their Pedagogical Implications." Unpublished M.A. dissertation, University of London, 1982; and "Role-Playing: An Approach to Achieving Reading Success and Improving the Linguistic Imagination of Black Inner-City Youth in the English Classroom." Unpublished M.A. dissertation, Howard University, Washington, D.C., 1973.

Liberian Studies Journal, XXIV, 2 (1999)

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Nigeria and Sierra Leone. The respective governments, educational authorities, and language policymakers of these countries try to resolve their language problems by adopting the English language as a lingua franca as well as a central medium of instruction in schools and at institutions of higher learning. The rationale for this approach to resolving their language problems is that, as a lingua franca used to communicate across linguistic barriers, the English language serves as a unifying, cohesive tool in bilingual and multilingual speech communities such as those found, for example, in Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone, among others. Some educational authorities and language policymakers approach the language situations of their countries with a kind of Oriental indifference, preferring to have the language situations resolve themselves naturally rather than to be concerned with linguistically culturally, socially, politically, economically and psychologically sensitive issues such as language policymaking and language pedagogy. However, an "ivory tower" or "armchair" approach to perennial language problems such as these cannot resolve them. The phenomenon of bilingualism/ multilingualism and the linguistic repercussions of the implantation of an institutional tongue such as the English language in Anglophone West Africa cannot be given a cavalier dismissal because as a legacy of slavery and colonialism, it is too entrenched in the national fabrics of Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone. The discussion that follows will suggest some approaches to the development and implementation of a bilingual educational programme for the use of indigenous languages as instructional media in Liberian schools. Our ideas will be more relevant if the discussion is placed within a wider historical, linguistic context. This approach will show how the present language situation evolved, and how it relates to the Liberian system of education. Therefore, in the next section, we will discuss briefly and succinctly the language situation in Liberia. The section will also attempt to trace the evolution of the Liberian language situation from the founding of the nation in the nineteenth century to the present.

THE LANGUAGE SITUATION IN LIBERIA As one reflects on Liberia's independence as a sovereign state, one recalls the coexistence of the English language and the sixteen officially recognized major languages of the country and the bilingual and multilingual individuals which the language situation has produced. A complex network of multi-ethnic and multilingual speech communities does not develop overnight. It grows steadily over

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the years. Thus, if one looks briefly at the historical background of the country, one discovers that two factors were instrumental in bringing to Liberia various ethnolinguistic groups speaking a wide range of languages and dialects. The two factors included (1) the migration of the indigenes from the Sudanic region of Africa more than two hundred years before the arrival of the settlers and (2) the repatriation of the settlers as freed slaves from the United States during the nineteenth century. As Dr. Mary Antoinette Brown-Sherman puts it, "Interaction between these two groups of people over the years has yielded the Liberian nation as we know it today."' Thus, there are seventeen ethnolinguistic groups co-existing in a not-so- easy an amicable relationship in modern Liberia. These seventeen ethnolinguistic groups include: (1) Bassa; (2) Belleh; (3) Dahn or Gio; (4) Dei; (5) Gbandi; (6) Go la; (7) Glebo or Grebo; (8) Kissi; (9) Kpelle; (10) Krahn; (11) Kru or Klao; (12) Loma; (13) Mandingo or Malinke; (14) Mano; (15) Mende; (16) Vai; and (17) the settlers. This means that with the arrival of the settlers from the United States, Liberia's language situation became much more complex with the addition of the English language. With the exception of the English language, the languages in Liberia came from three branches of the Niger-Congo family of languages: (1) Kruan; (2) Mande; and (3) West Atlantic or Mel. The Niger-Congo family of languages extends from the West Coast of Senegal to the East Coast of Kenya on the Indian Ocean, and to the southern end of the continent. (See Figures 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5). From the foregoing discussion so far, one notes that the use of the English language is superimposed upon a complex network of an indigenous language pattern. Compounding this great linguistic heterogeneity are a number of languages which are not indigenous to the country. These languages include French, German, Russian, Italian, Chinese, Igbo, Yoruba, Hausa, Arabic, Hindi, Timne, Tagalog, Malayan, and Fulani. They are spoken primarily in Monrovia, the nation's capital, as a result of immigration tendencies and diplomatic missions accredited to Liberia. Thus, the average Liberian who lives in the capital has a significant number of these

' Mary Brown Sherman, "Education in Liberia." In A.B. Fufanwa and J.U. Aisika, eds., Education in Africa: A Comparative Study (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1982), p. 182.

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Figure 1 Liberia and Its African Neighbors, with County Boundaries, 1984- Air

Guinea / Sierra Leone LOFA

GRAND CAPE Ivory Coast NIMBA MOUNT BONG

BOMI r-

GRAND MONTSERRADO BASSA MARGIBI RIVER CESS GRAND GEDEH ATLANTIC OCEAN

SINOE

MARYLAND

GRAND KRU

GULF OF GUINEA

Miles

0 25 50

Adapted from J. Gus Liebenow, Liberia: The Quest for Democracy (Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1984).

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Figure 2 Niger-Congo Languages of Africa

NIGER-CONGO LANGUAGES

Adapted from J. Greenberg, Language Universals. The Hague: Mouton, 1966.

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Figure 3 Liberian Language Families

Adapted from John Duitsman, "Liberian Languages,"

Liberian Studies Journal, Vol. X, No. 1 (1982-83), p. 30.

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Figure 4 Liberian Languages-Primary Areas

KLAOH- TAJUOSOHN

This is a simplified version of the language map included in the 1982 Liberian Atlas produced by the Ministry of Planning. the German Technical Assistance Organization, and the Institute for Liberian Languages.

Adapted from John Duitsman, "Liberian Languages."

Liberian Studies Journal, Vol. X, No. 1 (1982-83), p. 31.

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Figure 5 Liberian Languages (officially recognized)

KRUAN MANDE

1 Grebo 7 Vai T Kru Mende 3 Krahn 9 Bandi a Bassa 10 Mandingo a Dei Mano Belleh El Gio WEST ATLANTIC m Loma Go la Kpelle 16 Kissi

Adapted from John Duitsman. "Liberian Languages," a mimeo (1981).

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languages in his/her linguistic repertoire besides the mother tongue or first language. As Duitsman puts it,

Multilingualism is common in Liberia not only along language boundaries, but also in Monrovia and the larger cities. It is not unusual for a man who has lived and worked in Monrovia or at one or more of the concessions to be able to speak four or five languages and be able to understand most of what is said in that many more.'

As noted earlier in this article, the English language in Anglophone West Africa is a legacy of slavery and colonialism. However, unlike Anglophone West African countries such as Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and the rest of the continent, the founding of Liberia in 1822 was indeed unique because the country did not experience a European-style colonization in the orthodox sense of the word. Although Liberia did not experience colonialism in the generally accepted sense of the word, nevertheless, its language situation is similar to the language situations in Ghana, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone. The settlers, the repatriated polity from the New World, regarded themselves as being in a class of their own. They called themselves "Americo-Liberians," a term which implied "invidious, social distinction."3 In the past, however, it meant the settlers were an outpost of American culture and Western Civilization. Consequently, they regarded themselves to be superior to the indigenes, who were often referred to as "country men," "country women," "natives," and the like. In Liberian parlance, these terms were pejorative and condescending because they meant that the indigenes were unprogressive. Therefore, these terms were offensive to indigenous Liberians. In fact, the settlers were so contemptuous of the indigenes that they often cast aspersions on their characters, and a pejorative epithet such as "these half cannibals"' seemed to be the order of the day. The settlers' corroding dislike of the

2 John Duitsman, "Liberian Languages," Liberian Studies Journal, vol. X, no. 1 (1982-83), 27-36. 3 Warren d'Azevedo, Some Terms from Liberian Speech, Second Edition (Monrovia: U. S. Peace Corps, 1970), p. 37. 4 African Repository, 1(1826), 261.

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indigenes included indigenous languages. Their denigration of local languages was exemplified in Jehudi Ashmun's assertion that a language such as Dei (Dey) or Vai

(Vey) ". . . is imperfect in its structure, wants precision, has no numerals above 100, and abounds in sounds absolutely inarticulate. I think not worth the labor of reducing it to a grammatical or graphical form."' Of the Bassa language, one of the

first languages to be codified, he said that ". . .an European of education can scarcely credit the fact, that a jargon so rude in its structure, should exist as the medium of communication among rational beings."' To Ashmun, the only language worthy to be a medium of communication among rational beings is the English language. Although the accents and premises were slightly different, Alexander Crummell, a noted Cambridge-educated Liberian intellectual of the nineteenth century expressed a similar thought when he referred to the English language as the "Great and ennobling language."' In essence, he regarded the English language as a kind of compensation for the enslavement of the settlers in America. The unassailable position he accorded the English language was exemplified in his 1860 Independence Day Oration delivered in Harper City. In that oration entitled "The English Language in Liberia," Crummell articulated his views regarding the unassailable position he accorded such an institutional tongue in the following extract:

Here, on this coast. . . is an organized Negro community, republican in form and name; a people possessed of Christian institutions and civilized habits, with this marked peculiarity that is, that in color, race, and origin, they are identical with the masses around them; yet speak the refined and cultivated English

language. . . .

[In an oration two years earlier, I pointed] out among other providential events the fact, that the exile of our fathers from their African homes to America, has given us, their children, at least one item of compensation, namely the possession of the Anglo-Saxon

5 Ibid., p. 261. 6 Ibid., p. 261. 7 Alexander Crummell, The Future of Africa (New York: Charles Scribner, 1862), p. 54.

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tongue; that this language put us in a position which none other than the globe could give us; and that it was impossible to estimate too highly, the prerogatives and the elevation the Almighty has bestowed upon us, in having as our own, the speech of Chaucer and Shakespeare, of Milton and Wordsworth, of Bacon and Burke, of Franklin and Webster.'

The discussion so far shows that the settlers recognized the overwhelming claims of the English language in Liberia. Consequently, in modern Liberia the internal and external usefulness of the English language is too entrenched in a range of national functions to be superseded by a local language as a lingua franca. Moreover, the foregoing discussion indicates that traditionally, indigenous languages were perceived by the settlers to be intrinsically inferior to express sophisticated concepts about Western Civilization and Christianity because they were considered primitive languages. But no language is intrinsically inferior or superior to any other language whether it belongs to the Indo-European family of languages or to the Niger-Congo family of languages. However, the attitudes of present-day Liberians of the settler-stock towards indigenous languages are gradually changing for the better. Language reflects culture. Therefore, the local languages as vehicles of Liberian culture and heritage should be taught in schools and at institutions of higher learning in Liberia because it is upon the knowledge of language that knowledge itself rests. As vehicular languages for the bulk of the population, the local languages are used for "spoken communication" for the most part, and for "written communication" on a small scale, where they have been codified or have achieved literary statuses.

DEFINITIONS OF BILINGUALISM Before we discuss some approaches to the development and implementation of a bilingual educational programme, it is necessary to posit operational definitions of the terms, "bilingualism" and "bilingual". Although multilingualism subsumes bilingualism, in this article the term, "bilingualism" is extended to include competence in two or more languages. This is true in the case of Liberia because,

Ibid., p. 54.

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even though some Liberians are competent in two or more languages, one language seems dominant in their linguistic repertoire while others are subordinate. In other words even though it is not uncommon for Liberians to approximate to perfect bilingualism by being equally competent in two languages over a fairly wide range of situations, they are usually co-ordinate rather than compound bilinguals. Compound bilinguals are those who have a single semantic network covering two languages learned in the same cultural context. Co-ordinate bilinguals, on the other hand, are those for whom corresponding words in the two languages learned may have different meanings in each language. Scholars who have studied the phenomenon of bilingualism differ markedly in their definitions of the term. The plethora of definitions has ranged from maximal to minimal linguistic abilities. Bloomfield (1933), for example, maintains that "bilinguals" refer to those individuals who possess "native-like control of two languages,"9 while Haugen (1956) claims that "bilinguals" should refer to individuals having minimal rather than maximal linguistic qualifications.10 Weinreich (1953) adopts a neutral position when he defines "bilingualism" by stating "The practice of alternatively using two languages will be called bilingualism, and the persons involved, bilinguals."" Rivers' (1969) definition is similar to Haugen's in suggesting that we should "consider the child bilingual as soon as he is able to understand and make himself understood within his limited linguistic and social environment (that is, as is consistent with his age and the situation in which he is expressing

himself)." 12 Recognizing the bewildering and seemingly irreconcilable definitions of "bilingualism," Hornby (1977) suggests a plausible solution when he asserts that:

. . .The best way to deal with this variation in definitions would seem to be to recognize that bilingualism is not an all-or-none

9 Leonard Bloomfield, Language (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1933), p. 58. I" Einar Haugen, Bilingualism in the Americas: A Bibliography and Research Guide (Montgomery: University of Alabama Press, 1956). Quoted in Peter A. Hornby, ed., Bilingualism: Psychological, Social, and Educational Implications (New York: Academic Press, 1977), p. 3. Uriel Weinreich, Language in Contact (New York: Linguistic Circle of New York, 1953), p.1. 12 Wilga Rivers, "Commenting on R. M. Jones's Paper." In L. G. Kelly, ed. Description and Measurement of Bilingualism: An International Seminar (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1969), pp. 35-36.

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property, but is an individual characteristic that may exist to degrees varying from minimal competency to complete mastery of more than one language.13

APPROACHES TO THE DEVELOPMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION OF A BILINGUAL EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMME IN LIBERIA Indeed, a bilingual education would be beneficial to Liberia. Plans drawn up in 1970 by the Ministry of Education in conjunction with the Institute for Liberian Languages indicated the teaching of local languages alongside the English language, the lingua franca of the country. However, because of the coup d'etat of April 12, 1980 and the outbreak of the inter-ethnic civil war on December 24, 1989, this remains an aspiration rather than a reality. The plans outlined the development of oral fluency and written materials in eight indigenous languages namely, (1) Bassa; (2) Gio; (3) Grebo or Glebo; (4) Kpelle; (5) Krahn; (6) Kru or Klao; (7) Loma, and (8) Vai. Now that a civilian government has been installed, a bilingual educational programme can be fully developed and implemented. The objectives of the Liberian Languages Programme were as follows:

(1) To teach the student to communicate in writing in the language written with symbols of the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA); (2) To teach the student to communicate in writing in the language, record oral traditions, and write creatively in the language; (3) To familiarize the student with the literature available in the language, i.e., tribal histories, outstanding men, women, and local heroes; religious beliefs; customs; folklore, proverbs, word games, and songs; (4) To establish literacy skills that can be transferred to the reading and writing of English and as a tool for the learning of English and advanced education; (5) To give the student an appreciation of Liberian rich heritage of national life and local tribal customs; and, (6) To make the student aware of the importance of local language for education, communication, and as part of the heritage of the people.

13 Peter A. Hornby, ed., op. cit., p.3.

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Although the objectives were formulated in 1980, the Liberian Languages Programme only operated on an ad hoc basis in four languages: Belleh, Kpelle, Krahn, and Vai. In essence, the programme could not be implemented fully because it was not a well-developed one. In other words, the Ministry of Education seemed to lack trained linguists, teachers, and writers to develop and implement a full-scale bilingual educational programme that could and would be viable throughout the country. Before these objectives can be achieved, many linguistic, educational, and psychological factors will have to be taken into account in developing and implementing a bilingual educational programme of this sort. Two steps are essential in instituting a bilingual educational programme. First, officials of the Ministry of Education should form a Task Force consisting of a chairperson and his/her assistants. Second, the chairperson and assistants should select members of a language committee, which should include the following individuals:

(a) Liberians who are fluent in the indigenous languages to be selected and taught in a community should form an integral part of the language committee. (b) Linguists who are also researchers are needed because linguistic research is often a necessary preliminary for language choice decisions to establish language and "reference dialect" preferences. (c) Liberian monolinguals in indigenous languages should be on the language committee because they are not influenced by any other language. (d) Liberians who are well-versed in the culture are needed because language reflects culture. (e) Representatives from all religious denominations and political parties should be members of the language committee as well. (f) Representatives from the ethnic groups whose languages are to be selected and taught in the community should be included on the language committee so that no ethnic or language group will feel left out. (g) Technical advisors should be recruited. The technical advisors could be monolinguals who would serve in an advisory capacity. Because they determine the norm, these monolinguals should be Liberians who have earned the respect of the community.

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(h) Educated members of the younger generation of Liberians should play a vital role on the language committee because as future leaders, they will be agents of change. (i) Language teachers and teacher-trainers should be recruited because they will formulate behavioral objectives, design syllabuses, take part in materials assessment and production, and teacher-training programmes.

The functions of the language committee are as follows:

1) Mapping out linguistic zones in which community languages are to be selected and taught in the schools in that community. 2) Making an inventory of the phonemes of each language. 3) Developing an alphabet of each language. 4) Developing an orthography of each language. 5) The writing of adequate grammars and lexicons or dictionaries. 6) Choosing a standard form of a given language (e.g. seaside or coastal Grebo). This standard form should be a "reference dialect." It should be noted that because a given group of people of the selected language from which the "reference dialect" is taken do not speak the "reference dialect" does not mean that they are inferior to members of the "reference dialect" group. 7) Designing syllabuses and pedagogical materials, testing the pedagogical materials to see whether the standardization process of the reference dialect works, and testing to see whether the pedagogical materials are viable. 8) Training teachers, linguists, and writers. 9) Developing a basic core of literature. 10) Implementing full-scale bilingual educational programmes throughout the country.

The most important function of a language committee is mapping out linguistic zones in which community languages are selected and taught in the schools in that community. It is often argued that selecting the languages of certain ethnic groups to be taught in the educational system puts the native speakers of the chosen languages in more favourable positions politically, socially, economically

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and psychologically than those whose languages are not taught. There is nothing wrong with selecting a number of languages from a group of local languages in a linguistic zone to be taught as long as there is no conflict between those ethnic groups whose languages are taught and those whose languages are not taught. Moreover, this approach to language pedagogy will motivate members of the ethnic groups whose languages are not selected, to learn the languages of ethnic groups whose languages are selected and taught. Liberians could learn lessons, for example, from African countries such as Botswana, Kenya, Tanzania, Nigeria, Ghana and Sierra Leone. In Botswana, there are eight ethnic groups and, therefore, eight languages. But primary state education in Botswana is conducted in the Setswana language. In Kenya, there are forty languages. However, educational authorities have chosen Kiswahili as a national language as well as a medium of instruction in the system of education. Tanzania has also selected Kiswahili as a national language and as an instructional medium in schools. In Nigeria, there are over 400 languages. But a significant number of these languages are taught in Nigerian schools. In fact, major languages such as Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba, among others, can be studied as subjects at the university level and are certifiable in diploma and degree programmes. There are sixty languages in Ghana. The Institute for Ghanaian Languages teaches some of these languages, which are also taught in schools. Sierra Leone indicates that its indigenous language Education Project, though still at the pilot stage, has become so successful among rural Sierra Leoneans that there are constant requests for more schools to be administered bilingually. These are just a few examples of African countries in which bilingual educational programmes have become successful. Learning a second language is a skill quite distinct from learning to read and write, and the skills of reading and writing are concepts that can be transferred to, and useful for, learning other languages. A student who is learning to read and write English without having done so initially in his or her mother tongue, is learning two distinct skills, and the task is so complex, confusing, and formidable that only the exceptionally brilliant student can survive such an ordeal successfully. The sort of bilingual educational programme that could be instituted in Liberia should be organized in such a way that classroom teaching time in primary and elementary schools could be divided between teaching community languages and the lingua franca (i.e., English) as subjects as well as instructional media. For example, the first five years in primary and elementary schools could be devoted to teaching community languages as well as English, the lingua franca, as subjects and

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as instructional media. The chairperson or head of the Department of Languages could design syllabuses in such a way that teaching the community languages alongside English could continue through grade 8 at the discretion of the departmental head with the cooperation of the teaching staff. The division of classroom instruction could be as follows (LL = Local Languages; E = English):

EXHIBIT 1 Primary and Elementary Schools

Grade Level First Semester Second Semester

Grade 1 LL LL

Grade 2 LL LL

Grade 3 LL + E LL + E

Grade 4 LL + E LL + E

Grade 5 LL + E LL + E

Grade 6 LL + E E

Grade 7 LL + E E

Grade 8 LL + E E

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The arrangement of teaching time during the primary and elementary years could be apportioned as follows:

EXHIBIT 2

Level Community Language English

Grade 1 20 hours 5 hours (oral only)

Grade 2 20 hours 5 hours (oral only)

Grade 3 20 hours 5 hours (oral only)

Grade 4 10 hours 15 hours (oral + reading + writing)

Grade 5 10 hours 15 hours (oral + reading + writing)

Grade 6 10 hours 15 hours (reading + writing)

Grade 7 10 hours 15 hours (reading + writing)

Grade 8 10 hours 15 hours (reading + writing)

The foregoing outline is ideal in developing and implementing the kind of bilingual educational programme that would be beneficial to Liberia. Indeed, an ideal way to educate a bilingual pupil without a great deal of frustration and loss of precious time for learning and cognition is to begin with a skill he/she has mastered, namely his/her mother tongue, and build on it one step at a time. The formative years of a Liberian pupil's education in primary school could be ideally devoted to

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learning to master the receptive and productive skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing his/her mother tongue while at the same time being exposed to the English language in a classroom setting. For example, a Liberian pupil whose mother tongue is Grebo, should first learn to master the receptive and productive skills of listening to the Grebo language, speaking, reading and writing it. He/she should also learn to read Grebo history, folklore and culture, and have classes in spoken or oral English. When the pupil has an adequate mastery of the receptive and productive skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing the Grebo language-sometime in grade 6-learning to read and write English will be given increasingly more emphasis. Within two or three years after the pupil begins to read and write in his/her mother tongue, classroom teaching would gradually change to a situation where most subjects would be taught in English with a few special interest courses of cultural relevance in the Grebo language. Now, if you go back a few sentences and reread those sentences, replacing the word, "Grebo," with "Kpelle" or "Vai" and so forth, you will discover that you have in the Liberian system of education an outline for an ideal bilingual educational programme. One of the major steps in developing and implementing a bilingual educational programme is to formulate the behavioral objectives and the type of bilingual pupils or learners to be involved and the terminal behavior to be achieved. A number of questions could guide those who will be involved in writing textbooks,

materials assessment and production and syllabus design. 14

Is the bilingual programme for true non-readers? Is it to teach bilingual pupils who have some proficiency in reading English to read their mother tongue? Is it for children? Is it for adults? Will it form the basis of an institutionalized bilingual programme? Is it to be a part of an extramural bilingual programme?

14 See Charles Hutchinson, "The Vernacular in Public Education: Some Theoretical and Practical Considerations," a mimeo (Monrovia: The Institute for Liberian Languages, 1977), p. 4. I owe Mr. Hutchinson a debt of gratitude in this part of the paper. Although I have injected some original ideas in this section of the paper, a significant part of it contains his ideas, which I have revised and updated.

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Is it to meet the needs of adults so that they will have a language tool for improving their standards of living by making information on modern educational, health and agricultural programmes available to them in the forms of manuals or primers? Is it for the enhancement and preservation of teaching the positive aspects of the history and culture of indigenous languages in a community? Will it enable adults in a literature course to develop and produce a body of national literature (i.e., folk tales in indigenous languages)? Is it to meet the needs of non-literate adults in English to read the Bible and other repositories of knowledge in translation?

A good bilingual educational programme will take all these questions and perhaps more into consideration when designing syllabuses, taking part in materials assessment and production, writing textbooks and teachers' manuals, and planning teacher-training programmes. Such a bilingual programme involves a certain amount of highly specialized linguistic assistance. It also requires Liberians who understand the needs, aspirations and interests of their own people to be trained as linguists, writers and teachers. Such linguists, writers and teachers must be sensitive to the needs of Liberians. Many factors, including a positive self-concept, motivation, temperament, interest, knowledge and educability (not necessarily the same as intelligence) are involved. However, it should be emphasized that if a bilingual programme of a large scale is to be successfully developed and implemented, language teachers must be trained adequately, not minimally. It is a popular belief in Liberia that anyone who speaks his/her mother tongue fluently and competently can make a good teacher of that language. But teaching a second or foreign language requires the teacher to have a thorough knowledge of the phonology and grammar of the mother tongue of those to be taught. It is when the potential language teacher discovers how different the various systems of the languages are in the teaching process that he/she can effectively evolve strategies to teach that second or foreign language. What this means is that to be a good language teacher of literacy skills, a Liberian must first be a fluent speaker as well as a trained linguist and teacher of the indigenous language in question. It would be diluting standards to have a person of the Grebo ethnic group with a minimal competency or ability in the Mende language teaching in a Mende programme. On the other hand, a Liberian who has been trained as an English teacher and has an indigenous language as his/her mother tongue or

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first language is not thereby qualified to teach that language. No matter what such a person thinks his/her talents and skills might be, he/she must be taught to read and write his/her mother tongue because it is phonologically and grammatically different from English and the differences have significant influences upon the writing system. After linguists, teachers and writers have been trained, the next step in implementing a bilingual educational programme is to undertake a vigorous exercise in materials assessment and production. The linguists and trained language teachers who undertake this exercise must first of all make adequate analyses of the indigenous languages to be taught. The linguistic analyses of the indigenous languages to be taught should include an adequate phonology, adequate grammars and dictionaries. Based on these linguistic data and relevant sociological criteria, an orthography or writing system must be postulated and tested for effectiveness. Finally, a core of basic literature must be developed to include:

A primer for pre-literate children. A primer for literate pupils. A primer for adult non-readers. A primer for readers of English who want to become literate in their mother tongue. Teachers' manuals to accompany the primers. Graded readers of English to build reading skills. A basic and developing corpus of literature to make the whole process of learning to read newspapers, culturally relevant literature, how-to-do-it literature in agriculture, childcare and health, religious literature, literature for enjoyment and other areas of national needs worthwhile-especially when the process is accompanied by writing exercises. This corpus of literature should include material for transferring knowledge to the use of the English language in advanced education at the nation's institutions of higher learning.

Finally, the nation's institutions of higher learning and other teacher- training institutions in conjunction with The Institute for Liberian Languages (TILL) should be transformed into topnotch language-teaching centres. The University of Liberia, Cuttington University College, the Zorzor Rural Teacher-Training Institute

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(ZRTTI) and the Kakata Rural Teacher-Training Institute (KRTTI) should develop bilingual as well as ESL-teaching and linguistics programmes similar to those offered at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, and the University of Ghana, Legon. Specialist teachers, linguists and writers from Nigeria, Ghana, the United States and the United Kingdom of Great Britain in conjunction with the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) can be relied upon until a sufficient number of trained, local Liberian personnel is ready to take full control of the programme.

CONCLUSION We have attempted to describe, in a nutshell, the language situation in Liberia from the founding of the nation in the nineteenth century to the present. We noted two factors which were instrumental in producing a complex network of multi- ethnic and multilingual speech communities. These factors are (1) the migration of the various ethnolinguistic groups from the Sudanic region of Africa more than two hundred years before the arrival of the settlers, and (2) the repatriation of the settlers as freed slaves from the United States during the nineteenth century. Indigenous Liberian languages were perceived by the settlers to be intrinsically inferior to the English language in expressing sophisticated concepts about Western Civilization and Christianity. Consequently, the indigenous languages occupied a subordinate position in the Liberian system of education. However, no language is intrinsically inferior or superior to any other language whether it belongs to the Indo-European family of languages or to the Niger-Congo family of languages. Language reflects culture. Therefore, the indigenous languages as vehicles of Liberian culture and heritage should be taught alongside the English language, the lingua franca, in schools and at the nation's institutions of higher learning because it is upon the knowledge of language that knowledge itself rests. In other words, language is pivotal to national growth and development. In view of this, indigenous Liberian languages should be taught alongside the English language as subjects as well as instructional media in the country's system of education. This article, therefore, suggests some approaches to the development and implementation of a bilingual educational programme in Liberia. The most important step in instituting such a bilingual educational programme is the formation of a language committee consisting of linguists who are also researchers, writers, teachers, teacher-trainers, language-specialists, monolinguals, bilinguals, representatives from the ethnic groups whose languages are to be selected and taught

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in the schools in the community, representatives from all religious denominations, ethnic groups and political parties, educated members of the younger generation of Liberians, Liberians who are conversant with, or well-versed in the cultural heritage of the nation and technical advisers. The main functions of the language committee should include mapping out linguistic zones in which community languages are to be selected and taught in the schools in that community, making an inventory of the phonemes of the languages, developing an alphabet and an orthography, and the writing of adequate grammars and dictionaries. Finally, the core of literature that will be developed to administer the country bilingually should include material for transferring knowledge to the use of the English language, the lingua franca.

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Environmental Challenges to Liberian Agriculture

Cyril E. Broderick, Sr. and James L. S. Kiazolu*

INTRODUCTION Historical reports indicate that physical parameters in the Liberian environment make agricultural production precarious and very difficult.' The objective of this paper, consequently, is to characterize the environment, and to present alternatives to current production schemes that would enhance agricultural production in Liberia. Characterization of the environment relied upon published data on characteristics of the Liberian soil, including pedology and edaphology, and above-ground atmospheric conditions, including incident solar radiation, monthly precipitation, and temperature. Major constraints identified are (1) too little sunshine during the rainy season, which is the major crop production season; (2) high incidence of fungal, bacterial, and insect pests during crop production in the rainy season; and (3) low soil fertility and erosion, and leaching of applied fertilizers during the rainy season. The effects of high average annual temperatures are also discussed. Proposed measures to counteract constraints included (1) the construction of small and large dams to better utilize the high incident sunshine of the dry season in crop production; (2) adapt improved products from biotechnology, including herbicide-ready and insect-resistant crop varieties to counteract the difficult weed

Dr. Broderick is Associate Professor of Agriculture and Natural Resources at Delaware State University in the United States and is also the current vice president of the Liberian Studies Association. Dr. Kiazolu is Deputy Minister of Agriculture of the Republic of Liberia.

'The study is an acknowledgment of the inspiration and dedications the authors received from their former students, friends, schoolmates, instructors, and colleagues. Some of the inspirators are already deceased. They include Dr. George W. Cooper, Jr., veterinarian and professor at the University of Liberia; Mr. Brown Uty Poure, an estates and group manager at Firestone Plantations Company in Harbel; Mr. Albert Senwah, an instructor of plant pathology at the University of Liberia; Mr. James Bowier, instructor of music at the University of Liberia; and Mr. Victor Ward, professor of chemistry at the University of Liberia. We miss them, and may they rest in peace.

Liberian Studies Journal, XXIV, 2 (1999)

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problem of the cropping season; and (3) increase the use of computers, machines and other technologies that make agriculture a more mechanically and industrially efficient operation. Problems in agricultural productivity and food security must be addressed as Liberia works for progress in the twenty-first century. These problems relate to the difficult physical and biological environment in which agricultural productivity must be sustained. High incidence of human and plant diseases, soil erosion and leaching, and weed problems are some of the problems that have been described in letters, diaries, books and other reports from Liberia, especially those before and during the early establishment of the Republic (Schick, 1977; Smith, 1987; Saha, 1990). They provide the first tier of evidence of the difficult environment of the area occupied by the square mileage of land known as the Republic of Liberia. International and national agencies, including the United Nations, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), as well as the Liberian government and various private organizations have collected significant quantities of data about the Liberian environment (Schulze, 1973; Broderick, 1995). This allows the authors to work in making analyses and drawing conclusions about Liberian agriculture. Agriculture contributes enormously to the gross domestic product (GDP), the political stability of Liberia, and the economic welfare of the people (Chatfield, 1976; Broderick, 1998). Agriculture, therefore, can no longer be allowed to remain a precarious process in the planning process and the development of Liberia. The objective of this study is to characterize the major environmental factors that affect Liberian agriculture. A complement focus is to indicate how environmental problems challenge and constrain agriculture. Recommendations are presented to counteract the obstacles in the environment and enhance productivity and sustainability of agriculture in Liberia.

METHODOLOGY This study relies on the historic compilation of data about Liberia and the Liberian environment. Shulze (1973) analyzed some data and Broderick (1995, 1998) analyzed other data. This report corroborates information from those and other sources, then focuses on the meaning of the data. The data are then presented to underscore the challenges posed by specific factors in the Liberian environment. Secondly, the study utilizes the analyses of the data on Liberia in presentations that indicate solutions to problems in agriculture due to environmental

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factors. It draws on how developments in agricultural mechanization, chemical control of weeds and other pests, as well as post-harvest technologies may hold the answers to many problems in Liberian agriculture. Opportunities that are emerging in information science and the use of computers, as well as with developments in biotechnology, bring new insights in solving many age-old problems in Liberian Agriculture. The protocol of this study is to identify the problems, and then systematically indicate how to address and solve each for greater and sustained productivity in Liberian agriculture.

ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS THAT CONSTRAIN AGRICULTURE The physical environment includes the above-ground environment and the below-ground environment, as they affect plant and animal production in the agricultural process. The major factors in the above-ground environment include (1) incident radiation (sunlight), (2) precipitation (rainfall, fog and dew), (3) thermal effects (day and night heat retention), and (4) biotic factors, among others. The below-ground environment is a sector of the agricultural setting that receives little focus. It includes soil, soil water, soil elemental, structural and textural content, as well as soil organisms, especially earthworms, insects and microorganisms. A neglect to focus on these factors can be a major disadvantage in finding solutions to the problems they pose. We shall now categorize the problems that are indicated.

Constraints of the Below-Ground Environment The below-ground environment is explained as the pedological soil and the edaphological soil (Brady, 1974; Miller and Gardiner, 1998). Pedology is the study of soil science that focuses on components of the physical mass of the soil. It involves mineral composition, mineral structure, texture, and the chemical and physical nature of soil components. Edaphology also involves the soil, but focuses on the relationships effected by plants, animals, and other organisms that occupy the soil, especially as they relate to crop production. The essence and the effects of roots, microorganisms, earthworms, and other living things in soils are the focus of soil edaphology (Miller and Gardiner, 1998). Soil Pedology The area of Liberia is formed on soils classed as Ulitsols by Donahue, Miller and Shickluna (1983), but the description as Oxisols and Ultisols by Miller and Gardiner (1998) is a more complete description. The description of Latosols of Liberia, as described by Schulze (1973) is a subcategory of the Oxisols. Miller and

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Gardiner (1998) note that the predominant Oxisols are characterized as extensively weathered soils found on old land forms in humid tropical and subtropical climates. These soils are also characterized as low in silica but rich in residual iron and aluminum hydrous oxide residues, with sesquioxide and koalinite clays dominant. These soils typically have low pHs (around 4.5), low organic matter content, almost no "0" layer, high microbial activity, and a thin "A" layer. The explanation above provides classic indication that the soils of Liberia are poor, because soil nutrient elements have broken out the soil clays and been eroded or leached. There are, however, certain steps in the remediation process that can improve the agricultural productivity of these soils. We shall indicate what the different mentioned characteristics mean, and how these attributes affect agriculture in Liberia. Soil Edaphology Brady (1974) wrote that physical, chemical and biological characteristics of soil contribute both to edaphology and pedology, but in soil use, especially in agriculture, microorganisms and other living entities in the soil must be considered. Donahue et al. (1983) described the variety of organisms that live in the soil. Living organisms are very active in Liberian soils. The average annual temperatures are around 25°C, and moisture levels in soils are high during the rainy season. Atmospheric relative humidity is also high, and this affects microbial activity at the soil-air interface. The abundance of pests, consequently, varies with season, but their total effects cannot be underestimated. Earthworms, nematodes, and plants play host to pathogenic fungi, viruses, and bacteria. When these organisms die, they provide soil organic matter and increased water-holding capacity to the soil. These are edaphological factors that affect plant growth and Liberian agriculture. Plants, especially weeds, are also part of the soil environment, and they affect the physical soil character, as well as the existence of microorganisms, earthworms, and other soil organisms. Soil Moisture There is a clear relationship between soil water availability and plant growth (Foth, 1984). There is also a clear relationship between soil organic matter content and moisture-holding capacity. Because organic matter has a short residual life in tropical soils with high diurnal temperatures, moisture-holding capacity for such soils is low. Continuous water supply to such soils is consequently very important to soil fertility. Water is that ubiquitous substance that is essential to all life, and its

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availability is very determining to the conducive nature of the soil for plant growth and development. Constraints in the Above-Ground Environment The above-ground atmosphere is recognizably the collection of gases we term 'air," but there are other factors involved. Firstly, however, it is important to discuss the air of the atmosphere. The average composition of air is 78 % nitrogen, 21 % oxygen, 0.9 % argon (Seiko and Plane, 1971) and 0.03 % (300 um af1) carbon dioxide (Salisbury and Ross, 1992). The remaining 0.07 % gas by volume is typically all of the other gases that enter and leave the atmosphere. The basic tenet is that the 0.03 % of carbon dioxide is the critical gas, because it is the source of carbon that is found in all of the organisms, both plants and animals that inhabit the earth. The equation of photosynthesis explains how carbon dioxide combines with water to form carbohydrates. Carbohydrates are then converted to all of the variety of other organic compounds of living things that inhabit the Earth. Radiant energy (sunlight) plays a very indispensable role in the supply of energy for the process of photosynthesis, and chlorophyll is the pigment that absorbs sunlight in green plants. Explaining the process is, however, beyond the scope of this article. Sunlight Incident sun radiation, moisture supply in precipitation, diurnal and seasonal temperatures, and other physical and biotic factors affect agriculture (The Ministry of Agriculture, 1976; Broderick, 1998). Incident radiation to Liberia, as

determined from charts developed by Gates (1962) is approximately 800 cal cm -2 d1 (Salisbury and Ross, 1992). This figure is among the highest in the world. Clouds, nevertheless, reduce the amount of radiation that reaches the ground. Masses of clouds are predominant during the rainy season in Liberia, and they block much of the incident radiation. During the dry season, sunlight reaching the ground is higher.

Figure 1 shows the clear difference in the average number of hours of intense sunshine between the rainy and dry seasons, as measured at Harbel, Liberia (Broderick, 1995). Despite the clear delineation between the seasons, cloudiness is highest along the coast, with areas in the north and east having less rainfall and more sunshine (Schulze, 1973; Ministry of Agriculture, 1976).

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Figure 1 Average variation in the number of hours of bright sunshine per month at Harbel, Liberia. The Rainy Season runs from May to October and the Dry Season from November to April. 6

5

I 4

2 ° 1-10- Seriesl 1

0 MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC JAN FEB MAR APR Months of the Rainy Season and Dry Season Data are adopted from Broderick (1995).

Precipitation The highest precipitation occurs along coastal Liberia. and the lowest occurs in the highlands of Liberia's interior. Annual precipitation declines as the land rises and drops in the Futa Jallon highlands. The distribution of rainfall during the months of the year is shown in Figure 2, forming an average of more than 3000 mm of rain per year at Harbel (Broderick. 1995). This agrees with the annual rainfall distribution map for Harbel by Schulze (1973). Schulze (1993) pointed out the two rainfall peaks in June and September in areas along the coast. The short period of less rainfall, known as the middle dries, occurs there in July and August. but the length of the middle dries increases from about a week in Cape Mount County to several weeks in Maryland County.

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Figure 2 Annual rainfall at Harbel, Liberia. There is some rain in every month of the year, but rainfall from the Rainy Season must be saved in dams and waterways and used for irrigation in agriculture during the Dry Season.

600

500

400

300

c,2 200 Rainfall (mm)

100

I'll'''

MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC JAN FEB MAR APR Months Between one-half and two-thirds of the amount of rainfall on the coast falls in some areas of Lofa, Bong, Nimba, and Grand Gedeh counties. The problem with precipitation in Liberia is that almost all of the precipitation falls within the six months of the rainy season. Figure 2 clearly shows why the period from May to October has been classed as a rainy season, and the period from October to April has been described as a dry season. The dry season is caused by the facts that sunshine is abundant and precipitation is minimal. The situation is critical for farming because when there is an abundance of sunshine, there is a lack of water. This describes one of the major constraints to agricultural productivity in Liberia. Thermal Considerations The southern end of Liberia or the eastern part of Maryland County is approximately 4°30' N of the Equator. The northwestern part of Liberia is approximately 8°30' N of the Equator. Liberia is consequently wholly a tropical country. situated within the 15°N and 15°S latitudes about the Equator. Being so tropical. Liberia receives large quantities of solar energy, and much of that energy

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is heat energy. Because of Liberia's proximity to the Atlantic Ocean, much of that heat energy is absorbed by the evaporation of water. Schulze (1973) wrote that Liberia's location within the tropics means that the sun is almost always overhead, with all the consequences of high temperatures and convectional rainfall. The difference in elevation between sea level and several thousand feet above sea level accounts for lower temperatures in areas in upper Lofa and Nimba counties that average several degrees below temperatures in Monrovia, Buchanan, Greenville and other areas along the coast. The average monthly temperatures in Harbel, Liberia are plotted in the graph in Figure 3. Typically, the lowest temperatures occur between 2 AM and 6 AM during nights between late December and mid-February each year. During these times. low temperatures (around 15.5°C) are typical along the coast; temperatures in upper Lofa and Nimba counties may fall to around 12.5°C.

Figure 3 Monthly mean temperature for Harbel. Liberia. and Delaware, USA. The diurnal temperatures in Liberia are conducive year round for the growth of plants and all the pests, including bacteria, fungi, and insects. that prey on plants, and weeds.

30

25 a-

20 a

Q 15

AD-Delaware ; -A- Harbel

5

0 Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec Months of the Year

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Because of the high average temperatures of the Liberian environment, the weather does not naturally limit pests, and certain temperature sensitive plants are limited in Liberia's environment: Hence, typically, the Irish potato does not form tubers and collard greens do not produce seeds. Miscellaneous Physical Factors Photoperiodism is the concept that describes variation in the duration of light during the day, and the resultant effect on the biotic environment. Living things have circadian rhythms, and plants show various responses to the length of day or the duration of night. Flowering and fruiting in some species are strongly affected by length of day or duration of night. Also, various noxious gases affect the agricultural process. The response of plants to the length of day is prominent among temperate plants, but it is less visible among endemic tropical species. Biotic Factors The above-ground environments include a major component of biotic factors or living organisms. These organisms include bacteria, fungi, viruses, and insects, among other organisms. Biotic factors have major influences on agricultural productivity, because many organisms in crop ecosystems are either helpful or harmful. Bees and a few other insects serve in a beneficial role in the pollination of plants; many of these insects are also major pests of crop plants. Butterflies in their caterpillar larvae forms consume millions of pounds of cabbage leaves and leaves and fruits of many other plants. Fungi cause diseases such as powdery mildew, damping off, Fusarium wilt, and many other afflictions in crop plants. Diseases caused by bacteria and viruses are very important in animal production also. They include the Newcastle disease that affects chickens and other poultry, swine flu, the foot and mouth disease that affects cattle, and many other diseases that affect farm animals. Because fungal, bacterial and virus diseases typically spread through air and by contact, we recognize that they are part of the above-ground environment that affects agricultural productivity.

COUNTERACTING CONSTRAINTS TO AGRICULTURE McCourtie (1968) and Schulze (1973) described the traditional process of crop production in Liberia. In essence, they described the process where the crop production season corresponds with the rainy season. Land preparation begins just before the rains, then planting, cultivation, bird watching, and harvesting takes place. Finally, post-harvest processing takes place after the rains. The difficult environment

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described above has been successfully counteracted in various ways in the past, but the methodologies of the past must give way to new technologies. The need for a concerted effort to counteract the difficult environmental factors characterized above cannot be underestimated. The opportunity exists to counteract these negative factors, and Liberians will. As Martinelli (1964) wrote, there is a complex, almost mystical national determination that Liberians draw on in solving difficult problems. Utilization of the Greater Radiation of the Dry Season for Sustained Productivity The low incident sunshine during the rainy season is a constraint to agriculture, because that means that plants would not receive a high quantity of light to give the farmers their best yields. To counteract this problem, the suggestion is that crop production must take full advantage of the high intensity of sunlight during the dry season. The solution is to grow more crops, through the use of irrigation practices, during the dry season. The increase in photosynthesis would mean greater efficiency, higher yields, and better production. Rainfall Conservation for Dry Season Agriculture Some of the high precipitation of the rainy season must be conserved for dry season agriculture. This is done by the construction of small and large dams. Also during the dry season, it is important to use mulches and other soil covers, as well as to adopt current practices in conservation minimum tillage. Investment in dams with water distribution devices would enhance the production of crops in Liberia. Water pumps, some driven by solar energy, must also be introduced to transfer and distribute water for efficient farming during the dry season. Fertilizers, Compost and Organic Matter for Use in Agriculture Typically, plants require some sixteen nutrient elements for growth and development; thirteen of these are mineral nutrient elements. Fertilizers are used to supply these mineral nutrient elements for plant growth and development (Tisdale and Nelson, 1975). It is well documented that tropical soils are quite deficient in organic matter, but the benefits of organic matter in crop production are widely recognized. The provision and use of such materials, consequently, must be a commitment in agriculture. Hence, the production and increased use of compost and organic products from plant and animal sources must become routine protocols in Liberian agriculture. Their use improves soil water holding capacity, cation exchange capacity, as well as potential crop yield. Because of this, every effort must be utilized to combine animal and crop production to develop an efficient organic matter supply scheme.

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Plant nutrition in the traditional system has been supplied from the fallow and by the ashes secured from burning cleared plants and crop residue. The supply is generally inadequate for optimal yields. Even with copious supply, nutrients are lost in erosion and leaching during the rainy season; such losses are however minimal during the dry season. It is clear that nutrient requirements of certain crop plants cannot be met from the ashes produced during the preparation of farm land. Hence, modern farmers recognize that more investment has to be made in the acquisition and use of fertilizer materials and manure. Animals are a good source of organic matter for use in crop production. There is little recycling and use of such products. It is important that poultry manure, swine manure, and cattle manure become integrated in the production system. Their incorporated use with fertilizers can add a large level of productivity to agricultural fields, and the practice must be encouraged Livestock Production Using Forage and Hay In cattle production, much more attention would have to be paid to the construction of better holding structures, including barns, the use of concentrate feeds, and the increased use of processed and stored hay. This would assist in the efficiency of cattle production during the rainy season in Liberia. Crops for animal feed would have to be produced in larger quantities. Liberia spends too much of her national income importing poultry feed and pig feed. Given the present low level of feed production, this activity is an avenue for possible investment in Liberia. Feed costs can be reduced with the resultant increase in the production of swine and poultry products. New Technologies Too much of the Liberian agricultural system still depends on the cutlass and the slash and burn agricultural system. It is time that the government and private enterprise encourage Liberian agriculture to adopt machines, including rotavators, small tractors, and irrigation pumps. Tractors, grain elevators and other machines that are labor-saving devices provide for the cultivation of larger farms and the efficient use of labor. Liberian agriculture must also use improved seeds and the new products of biotechnology. The new seeds that are products of modern biotechnology must also be introduced and widely adopted by fanners. Some new seeds produce plants that are herbicide tolerant (i.e., Roundup resistant soybeans), and insect resistant (i.e., Bt corn). Improved farm animals must also be adopted in the production of disease-resistant birds, growth-hormone responsive cattle, and a rapidly growing and faster-maturing swine for pork and bacon production.

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The environment described in reports a hundred years ago exists today, but tractors and other industrial products now make tillage and soil cultivation an easy chore. Computers make information accessible, and computers are now integrated into the use of many machines and information systems. Computers control grain elevators, spraying programs, and crop irrigation schedules. Also, discoveries in the life sciences now provide control for many diseases. Moreover, effective interventions have been discovered for many diseases that attack plants and animals. Liberia must establish effective systems to utilize these developments and take bold steps to make Liberian agriculture a basis for sustained and profitable production for the Liberian population. In this way, Liberia can ensure food security in the twenty- first century.

CONCLUSION As Liberia recovers from the losses to agriculture over the last decade and more, it is important that agricultural research, including the collection and analyses of important physical, meteorological, and biological data, is enhanced. Data acquired form a major base to the planning, decision-making, and productive activities of the country. Implementation of plans must ensue to counteract the problems described. With the utilization of new technologies, including industrial machines, tractors, computers and biotechnology, there is tremendous hope for Liberian agriculture and food security. The availability of statistics on these developments would help Liberia to understand agriculture and its requisite inputs. These considerations will enable the populace to address the challenges that the Liberian environment presents to a productive, profitable, and sustainable agricultural system as Liberia produces in the twenty-first century and beyond.

REFERENCES

Brady, Nyle C. 1974. The Nature and Properties of Soils, 8th Ed. Macmillan Publishing Co., New York. Broderick, Cyril E. 1995. "Changes in the Climate at Barbel, Liberia," Biological Agriculture and Horticulture 12:133-149.

. 1998. "Liberian Agriculture: History and Status toward the Twenty-first Century," Liberian Studies Journal 23:42-77. Brown, George W. 1941. The Economic History of Liberia. The Associated Publishers, Washington, D.C.

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Donahue, Roy L., Raymond W. Miller, and John C. Shickluna. 1983. Soils: An Introduction to Soils and Plant Growth, 5th Ed. Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, N.J. Foth, Henry D. 1984. Fundamentals of Soil Science, 7th Ed. John Wiley & Sons, New York. Feurer, Thomas W. 1997. Delaware Agricultural Statistics Summary: 1996 Preliminary Estimates & 1995 and Earlier Years Revised. Delaware Department of Agriculture, Delaware Agricultural Statistics Service & National Agricultural Statistics Service, United States Department of Agriculture. Gates, D. M. 1962. Energy Exchange in the Biosphere. Harper and Row, New York. McCourtie, W. D. 1968. "Traditional Farming in Liberia: A Preliminary Inquiry." College of Agriculture and Forestry, University of Liberia, Monrovia, Liberia. Miller, Raymond W. and Duane T. Gardiner. 1998. Soils in our Environment, 8th Ed. Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, N.J. Saha, Santosh C. 1990. A History of Agriculture in Liberia, 1822-1970: Transference of American Values. Studies in African Economics and Social Development, Vol. T. The Edwin Mellen Press, Lewiston, N.Y. Salisbury and Ross. 1992. Plant Physiology, 4th Ed. Wadsworth, Inc., Belmont, Calif. Schick, Tom W. 1977. Behold the Promised Land: A History of Afro-American Settler Society in Nineteenth Century Liberia. The John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, Md. Seiko, Michell J. and Robert A. Plane. 1971. Chemistry, 4th Ed. McGraw Hill, Inc., New York. Shulze, Willi. 1973. A New Geography of Liberia. Longman Group Limited, London. Smith, James Wesley. 1987. Sojourners in Search of Freedom. University Press of America, Lanham, Md. Taylor, Wayne Chatfield. 1956. "The Firestone Operations in Liberia. Fifth Case Study in an NPA Series on United States Business Performance Abroad." National Planning Association, Arno Press (New York, 1976). Taiz, Lincoln and Eduardo Zeiger. 1998. Plant Physiology, 2nd Ed. Sinauer Associates, Inc., Publishers, Sunderland, Mass. Tisdale, Samuel L. and Warner L. Nelson. 1975. Soil Fertility and Fertilizers. Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc., New York.

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Book Reviews

UnAfrican Americans: Nineteenth-Century Black Nationalists and the Civilizing Mission

Tunde Adeleke. Lexington, Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky, 1998. 192 pp.

Tunde Adeleke's study examines the merits and mostly the faults of the expressions of black nationalism by Martin Delany, Alexander Crummell, and Henry McNeal Turner, all leading African Americans who showed some interests in Africa, particularly in Liberia in the nineteenth century. The author argues with sustaining evidence that the conceptual and empirical expressions of black nationalism by the three African American leaders were characterized by contradictions. It is maintained that they relied on the very values Euro-Americans employed to subjugate and alienate blacks in their articulations of black nationalism. Although they emphasized separatism, one is told, the three leaders were basically integrationists; and that even their brands of Pan-Africanism or higher form of black nationalism reflected integrationist sentiments. Against this background, the three leaders are said to have condoned European imperialism in Africa. The author further attributes the foregoing manifestations to the "dual personalities" of the three leaders, and that such personalities were the product of their encounters with slavery, racism, and other forms of oppression in their American diaspora. The experiences had taught them, it is maintained, to accept and internalize Euro-American institutional values at the expense of their African ones. It is further argued that while acceptance and internalization of Euro-American values did not lead to their social, political, and economic accommodations by the American systems, their embracement of such values made them unprepared to commit themselves seriously to African institutional values. In other words, the experiences of the three African American leaders are said to have taught them to appreciate American values and denounce those which were African, even though such behaviors did not lead to their full accommodation by the American social, economic, and political systems.

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While the author's arguments, especially the ones which highlight the contradictions of the three leaders are well taken, the failure to treat these contradictions in the context of the meaning and desired objectives of black nationalism during the period covered by the study seems to do injustice to the three black nationalists. As an ideology that emphasized blacks' racial pride or uniqueness, right to be American and to self-determination, demand for political, economic, and social accommodations, and common experiences with enslavement and racism, it could be reasonably maintained that African American nationalism like those of Irish, Jewish, and Italian Americans could be described as a synthesis of contradictions. The contradictions which characterized the nationalist sentiments of Crummell, Delany, and Turner can be well understood by taking into consideration the makeups and objectives of the very ideology they conceptually and empirically expressed. Indeed, while it condemned the oppressive attributes of America, black nationalism simultaneously demanded that American fundamental moral or virtuous values or democratic principles be extended to blacks. Further, the right of blacks to be both American and African American has been historically among the many demands of black nationalism. The demands in question were produced and informed by the experiences of blacks since the beginning of the seventeenth century. Although it has been mostly portrayed solely as Euro-American, the American civilization since the 1600s has been a product of interactions of indigenous, white, and black Americans. When Delany, Crummell, and Turner demanded that their people should be accommodated by the positive elements of such a civilization, they were, therefore, calling for inclusion in the very system that African Americans had helped to produce. In this sense, they were not demanding assimilation by institutional values uniquely Euro- American as the integrationist school of thought has emphasized. Delany, Crummell, and Turner were also selective in their recommendations of American institutional values to their people in the diaspora and the ones in Africa. They praised its emerging economic, industrial, and democratic institutions, but condemned its failure to extend these to black people. They expected blacks to acquire those American values which would help to promote their interests. And of course, the mentioned recommendations were motivated by the empirical experiences of the three leaders. Their attainment of the recommended values qualified them, for example, to be spokesmen for their people. Evidently, such an attainment had worked for them, and they, therefore, had every reason to believe that it could work for their people even at the expense of values unique to black

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people in the diaspora and in Africa. What is fundamentally implied by the manifestations of black nationalism and Pan-Africanism of the three leaders is that if Africans and African Americans wished to determine their own destinies, they would have to acquire, among many other things, the positive attributes of the American systems which had been produced by indigenous, white, and black Americans. If the foregoing statements are taken into consideration, then it could be reasonably maintained that the nationalism and Pan-Africanism of the three leaders were not much different from the nationalist and Pan-Africanist sentiments of what the author describes as "new generation" of black nationalists and Pan-Africanists like W.E.B. DuBois, George Palmore, Henry S. Williams, Jomo Kenyatta, J.L. Dube, D.D.T. Jabavu, Wallace Johnson, Hastings K. Banda, Nnamdi Azikiwe, J. Case ly- Hayford, and Kwame Nkrumah. In other words, the author's argument that the nationalism and Pan-Africanism of the foregoing leaders were not characterized by contradictions as those of Delany, Crummell, and Turner is, indeed, misleading. Like Delany, Crummell, and Turner the new leaders were selective in their condemnations of European and American institutional systems. While they strongly disparaged the racist and exploitative attributes of such institutional systems, even the most radical among them like Nkrumah and others were to embrace other Western systems in the development of their respective countries. Nkrumah, in fact, thought that the use of such values on behalf of Africa could bring true freedom to Africans and their descendants in the diaspora. Nkrumah, therefore, recommended European and American educational, technological, economic systems, and even aspects of their cultural and social designs for the development of continental Africa. Moreover, Nkrumah, Kenyatta, Banda, and other leading African nationalists and Pan- Africanists were to reestablish in their respective countries the very colonial centralized political system that they had aggressively and successfully opposed before the 1960s. Again, the contradictions of the new group of African nationalists and Pan-Africanists like those of the earlier ones can be well understood by examining them against the backdrop of the internal and external objective conditions which informed and determined their evolutions. Despite the mentioned criticisms, the book has a lot to offer. It is based on scholarly publications. The attempt made to provide an African perspective of black nationalism is commendable. Many scholarly publications on the topic have failed to do this. The bold attempt made to expose and treat the contradictions of three leading African Americans will obviously precipitate analytical responses from other

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Africanists and African Americanists, which in itself will further deepen our understanding of the topic.

Amos J. Beyan West Virginia University

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UnAfrican Americans: Nineteenth-Century Black Nationalists and the Civilizing Mission

Tunde Adeleke. Lexington, Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky, 1998. 192 pp.

In his work Unafrican Americans, Tunde Adeleke contends that scholarship on nineteenth-century black nationalism has, historically, focused upon the more radical elements of black nationalism, such as militancy and separatism, without giving satisfactory coverage to elements of black nationalism which contradicted this picturesque uniformity. Consequently, Adeleke attempts to provide a revisionist critique by analyzing the contradictory elements of nineteenth-century black nationalism through the lives and actions of three prominent nineteenth-century nationalists: Henry McNeal Turner, Martin Delaney, and Alexander Cromwell. Adeleke's thesis is that since black nationalism in the United States developed in a Euro-American context, many black Americans inculcated Anglo-Saxon prejudices and ideals in their attitudes towards Africans and also articulated and defended the imperial aspirations of Western powers in Africa. This was embodied in the ambivalent nationalism of Delaney, Crummell, and Turner which Adeleke examines through their emigrationist schemes and ambiguous attitudes towards Africans. According to Adeleke, previous scholarships on Delaney, Turner, and Crummell have emphasized their strong nationalist rhetoric and Pan-Africanist sentiments. Adeleke, himself, states that "Delaney embodied the quintessence of black

nationalist though . . . "(37) due to his strong stands on black emigrationism and black self help. However, Adeleke points out that Delaney's support of black self help was basically a moral suasionist argument which embodied a strong Protestant work ethic for the black Middle Class but basically put the shoulder of blame on improvement on black Americans. Delaney's schemes for black emigration were tinged with contradiction, also. Delaney became an advocate of black emigration after early disillusionment with the progress of black integration in the United States. Following an exploratory visit to Liberia and Nigeria in 1859, Delaney began to push for the development of an economically powerful and politically independent black state in Abeoka, Nigeria. However, as Adeleke points out, this independent black state was to be financed by British industrialists whom Delaney actively courted for support. So,

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although Delaney's support for black nationalism through emigration suggested a rejection of Eurocentric values, his calls for economic aid from European industrialists compromised his vision by advancing European economic imperialism. This economic imperialism presaged the development of, and would provide justifications for, territorial acquisition following the 1890s. In addition, during Delaney's tour of Africa in 1859, he vehemently criticized African cultural practices, such as eating with fingers and sleeping on mats, which he thought were barbaric. Adeleke states that since Delaney knew little of Africa before he went there, the confrontation with the real Africa brought out his submerged African consciousness. According to Adeleke, both Alexander Crummell and Henry McNeal Turner, much like Delaney, espoused Pan-American ideals and black emigrationism to Africa after becoming disillusioned with the pace of integration in the United States. Despite these ideals, both Turner and Crummell, however, saw indigenous African culture as barbaric and morally decrepit and believed that Christianity and commerce would provide the way for "civilizing" Africa. African Americans would provide the impetus to this "civilizing" process by emigrating back to Africa. Essentially, as Adeleke states, Crummell and Turner recast slavery in the United States as a divine positive force which shaped African Americans to eventually return to Africa and bring civilization to it. This reflected Crummell and Turner's own ambiguous national identity, for the emphasis upon slavery replaced the emphasis upon Africa as the foundation for African-American identity. Adeleke states, "what pushed them in the direction of Africa was not the paramount importance of African identity by the rejection, subordination and exploitation of blacks in the United States." (113) Adeleke's work is a fine contribution to revisionist scholarship on black nationalism. He builds upon the work of previous scholars such as Wilson J. Moses, Sterling Stuckey, Ottey Scruggs, August Meier, and Elliot Rudwick which examine the ambiguous nature of black nationalism. His main contribution is to emphasize that the contradictory nationalism of Delaney, Turner, and Crummell which led them to support Western imperialism in Africa. Adeleke's work is mainly built upon secondary sources and periodicals. One of the weaknesses of his book is his theoretical framework. Adeleke's de- construction of black nationalism is trapped within the same cultural nationalist frame of reference as the black nationalists that he critiques. The very definition of African or African American is an amorphous concept that is historically existential. Adeleke is aware of this but this conundrum leads him to a rigid conception of black consciousness which "refers to the conviction that blacks as a group share certain

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unique and unifying experience . . . ."(1 1) With this definition he critiques Delaney, Turner, and Crummell for their ambiguous nationalism which was centered upon an identity associated with slavery as opposed to an identity associated with Africa. But Adeleke is, himself, trapped within the paradigm of black identity, essentially related to combined experiences as a result of slavery. For Adeleke, Africa is a monolithic idea which was acted upon by the contradictory nationalism of Delaney, Turner, and Crummell. The very idea that Delaney, Crummell, and Turner's nationalism was ambivalent is based upon an idea of African or black unity based upon the common experience of subjugation, for which Adeleke critiques them.

Okia J. Opolot West Virginia University

The reviewer is completing his Ph.D. in African History under the supervision of Professor Robert Maxon at West Virginia University. His main areas of study include modern East and West Africa and the transatlantic slave trade.

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Classical Black Nationalism from the American Revolution to Marcus Garvey

Wilson Jeremiah Moses (ed.). New York: New York University Press, 1996. 257 pp.

There was an early period in United States history where scholars and activists were engaging the areas of racial identity, group solidarity, divine retribution, severe criticisms of slavery, the primacy of Africa, and made calls for the upliftment of African people. This was the "golden" age of black nationalism in the United States according to Wilson Jeremiah Moses in his 1988 work The Golden Age of Black Nationalism, 1850-1925. This work, reviewed as "controversial and impressive," stimulated analysis of the integrationist thrust of black nationalism. This period is marked by the work and rehetoric of individuals interested in the lives of enslaved Africans. Moses goes beyond the traditional analysis of black nationalism and gives another account of this important period in his edited 1996 work, Classical Black Nationalism, from the American Revolution to Marcus Garvey. Classical Black Nationalism focuses primarily on the ideas surrounding the emigration of African Americans to Africa or some other part of the world. This volume contains comprehensive introduction by Moses, and three distinct periods of black nationalism: "The Colonization and Emigration Controversy, Preclassical Period," "Classical Black Nationalism, 1850-62," and, "Black Nationalist Revival, 1895-1925." Moses has carefully selected representative primary source document for each part in order to "provide college students and professors with a basic set of texts for courses in African American history," and uses these materials to "trace the historical roots of the popular black nationalism that attracts so many African Americans today." (Moses 2) In his forty-two page introduction, Moses defines the concepts which traditionally characterize early black nationalism; he provides a history of black nationalism with bibliographic notes. As a historian, one of the most important aspects of his editing is that he provides students with the familiar voices of black nationalism and Pan-African thought-personages such as Paul Cuffe, Martin Delany, Alexander Crummel, and Edward Wilmot Blyden. Moses also includes Maria Stewart's "Address at the African Masonic Hall (1833)" (Moses 90) and Edward Wilmot Blyden's "The Call of Providence to the Descendants of Africa in America (1862)" (Moses 188). Stewart's manuscript is filled with the nationalist

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thrust ("African rights and liberty . . .") as she entreats African people to be weary of emigration schemes:

The unfriendly whites first drove the native American from his much loved home. Then they stole our fathers from their peaceful and quiet dwellings, and brought them hither, and made bond-men and bond-women of them and their little ones; they have obliged our brethren to labor, kept them in utter ignorance, nourished them in vice, and raised them in degradation; and now that we have enriched their soil, and filled their coffers, they say we are not capable of becoming like white men, and that we can never rise to respectability in this country. They would drive us to a strange land. But before I go, the bayonet shall pierce me through. African rights and liberty is a subject that ought to fire the breast of every free man of color in these United States, and excite in his bosom a lively, deep, decided and heart-felt interest (Moses 98).

In emotions similar to Stewart's message, Blyden uses the persuasive tone of Christianity to present his ideas. However, Blyden's work makes significant appeals to Africans regarding ancestral memory, to in essence, not forget their "Africanity." Blyden admonishes Africans for their loss of identity:

All other people feel a pride in their ancestral land, and do everything in their power to create for it, if it has not already, an honorable name. But many of the descendants of Africa, on the contrary, speak disparagingly of their country; are ashamed to acknowledge any connection with that land, and would turn indignantly upon any who would bid them to go and take possession of the land of their fathers (Moses 189).

Based on this documentary history, Moses defines classical black nationalism in America as "the ideology that argued for the self-determination of

African Americans within the framework of an independent nation-state . . ." (Moses

6); and the "advanced mass migration of African Americans to Africa . . . the creation of a separate geographically based nation state for the African American population" (Moses 30). In doing so, Moses echoes E. U. Essien-Odom's Black Nationalism, a

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Search for an Identity in America. In this late sixties work, Essien-Udom asserted that "Negro nationalism' found expression during the nineteenth century in the Negro-sponsored emigration movement as well as in Negroes' response (though limited) to the emigration scheme of the American Colonization Society" (Essien- Odom 32). Moving beyond the definition of black nationalism as the concerted effort to migrate back-to-Africa, Moses also acknowledges the intellectual aspects of classical black nationalism. His predecessors here include John Bracey, Jr., August Meier, and Elliot Rudwick's 1970 edited volume Black Nationalism in America. Bracey, Jr., et al. state: "The term 'black nationalism' has been used in American history to describe a body of social thought, attitudes, and actions ranging from the simplest expressions of ethnocentrism and racial solidarity to the comprehensive and sophisticated ideologies of Pan-Negroism or Pan-Africanism. Between these extremes lie the many varieties of black nationalism, of varying degrees of intensity" (Bracey et al. xxvi). It is important to note that Moses begins Classical Black Nationalism with an excerpt from Thomas Jefferson's "Notes on the State of Virginia (1782-82)". This selection presents an important example of the racial world view which is collateral to the African American drive to sustain a national thrust from the 1900s. In this excerpt, Jefferson supports the deportation of Africans, the immigration of "white settlers," and espouses the white social problematic of miscegenation (Moses 45-47). Moses also incorporates the obiter dictum (non-binding remarks or opinion on a case as expressed by a judge) by Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, "Obiter Dictum on the Dred Scott Case," (1857) where Justice Taney clearly articulates the argument that people of African descent were not citizens of the United States (Moses 125-130). Taney's question is clear:

Can a Negro, whose ancestors were imported into this country, and sold as slaves, become a member of the political community formed and brought into existence by the Constitution of the United States, and as such become entitled to all the rights, and privileges, and immunities, guaranteed by that instrument to the citizen? (Moses 126).

College students are able to ascertain the other important external factors which supported the black nationalist thrust. Most significantly, Moses demonstrates the immense drive for African self-determination and the sustained perception that

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this aspect of black freedom could only be found in Africa, or in the working toward the concerted liberation of the African continent. Moses also, through his carefully selected manuscripts and excerpts, details the literary precursors to the sixties and seventies "cultural nationalist" thrust of classical black nationalism from the work of Robert Alexander Young to Marcus Garvey. Young's "The Ethiopian Manifesto" states:

Ethiopians! The power of divinity having within us, as man, implanted a sense of the due and prerogatives belonging to you, a people, of whom we are of your race, in part born, as a mirror we trust, to reflect to you from a review of ourselves, the dread condition in which you do at this day stand (Moses 60).

Almost a century later, Marcus Garvey in his "Address at Newport News" states:

The New Negro, based by the Universal Negro Improvement Association, is determined to restore Africa to the world, and you scattered children of Africa in Newport News, you children of Ethiopia, I want you to understand that the call is now made to you.

What are you going to do . . . when you touch any Negro in Newport News you touch four hundred million Negroes all over the world at the same time (Moses 246).

Moses hastens to define, or make a critical distinction between Afrocentricity and Afrocentrism in this work. However, he does include the important Africa logical concept of Afrocentricity as part of black nationalist thrust and legacy. And he discusses the concept as a significant thread in the fabric of black nationalism. He begins the introduction by noting that: "'Black Nationalism,' `Afrocentrism,' and 'Pan-Africanism' are terms widely in use on college campuses today, but few students realize that these concepts had their origins in documents dating as far back as the American Revolutionary period." (Moses 1) Moses notably counts W.E.B. Dubois, Marcus Garvey, and David Walker among the proto- Afrocentric thinkers; however, in his introduction to the excerpts from Walker's "Appeal" he maintains that:

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Article 2, "Our Wretchedness in consequence of ignorance," covers a number of subjects. Walker begins with references to a time when Africans stood at the peak of civilization, and argues, as do twentieth-century Afrocentrists, that all the arts and sciences of Greece and Rome derived from the civilization of the Nile (Moses 68).

While this assertion establishes the connection of Walker's ideas to contemporary popular culture notions of the Afrocentric scholarship movement, it is too broad in terms of illustrating what Afrocentrists have researched and written regarding the relationship between ancient Greece and Rome and the Nile Valley Civilizations. Moses is valid in that Afrocentricists examining ancient Africa and Greece and Rome, do posit a strong argument for a significant north African influence on Greco-Roman civilization. However, academic Afrocentricists and African-centered scholars rarely suggest or advance that Greece and Rome contributed nothing to their own human development. While scholars such as Alan Jay Zaremba uses the terms "Afrocentrism" and "Afrocentricity" interchangeably, as in his work "Asante. Indeed" (Zaremba 259-273) he defines the term as the school of Afrocentric scholars and Molefi Asante have advanced (Asante 1998, Ziegler 1995). As Asante notes, using the term "`Afrocentricism' rather than `Afrocentricity,' conservative critics have claimed that its purpose is (ideological rather than systematic) to bring dis-harmony to American society by raising the self- esteem of African American youth" (Asante ix). Notwithstanding this observation, Moses establishes in the selections representing Classical Black Nationalism, the significant historical themes of racial identity and solidarity, divine retribution for African people, the severe critiques of white society and their slave-holding practices; the primacy of Africa, and the traditional call for the upliftment of African people. He makes a meaningful contribution in the introduction to each document which includes the historical context for the manuscripts. Classical Black Nationalism highlights the distinct legacy of a common identity and a common struggle of people of African descent and how African Americans shared a destiny with white citizens. Students will gain an awareness of nineteenth-century social, cultural and political based on Moses' concise analysis. Classical Black Nationalism will excite students and provide those majoring and minoring in history and African Studies a foundation in black nationalism to build upon. A good edited volume provides for provocative and

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creative interpretation, a great edited work stimulates the reader to grasp a sense of history, and at the same time, forge a construction of the past which better informs our collective understanding of the present. In Classical Black Nationalism, Moses continues to make one of the most highly regarded scholarly contributions to black nationalist studies.

REFERENCES Asante, Molefi Kete. The Afrocentric Idea. (Revised and Expanded). Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1998. Bracey, Jr., John H., August Meier and Elliot Rudwich. Black Nationalism in America. New York: Bobbs-Merrill Co., Inc., 1970. Essien-Udom, E. U. Black Nationalism, a Search for an Identity in America. New York: Dell Publishing, 1969. Moses, Wilson Jeremiah. Classic Black Nationalism. New York: New York University Press, 1996.

. The Golden Age of Black Nationalism, 1850-1925. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988. Zaremba, Alan Jay. "Asante. Indeed," in Dhyana Ziegler's (ed.) Molefi Kete Asante and Afrocentricity in Praise and Criticism. Nashville, James C. Winston Publishing Co., Inc., 1995.

Katherine Olukemi Bankole West Virginia University

The reviewer earned her Ph.D. in African American Historical Studies at Temple University in 1996. She is an Assistant Professor of History, Director of the Center for Black Culture and Research, and Coordinator of the Africana Studies Program at West Virginia University. Her many publications include Slavery and Medicine (New York, 1998) and "Plantations without Slaves" in Slavery in Plantation Society (New York, 1998).

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Africa and Children

.1. Ninsel Warner. New York: Carlton Press, 1993. 128 pp.

Africa and Children is J. Ninsel Warner's first work of creative fiction to date. A poignant portrait of family life, it is placed within the context of contemporary Liberian society with its preoccupation with the sectionalism-ethnicity divide. The novel tells a heart-rending story about Doe Tweh, a boy of the Kru ethnic group, and Lucretia Mantarda, daughter of Honourable Daleato Mantarda, a member of the settler stock. Tweh's story begins when he is discovered by German immigration officers as a stowaway on a German ship and as an illegal immigrant. He is deported to Liberia. Upon his return, he narrates his story to Mr. Wisseh, an old man of the Kru ethnic group, who provides shelter and sustenance for Tweh in New Kru Town, where Tweh had grown up, fondly imagining that the remembered pains of his own adolescent experience might help him better understand the grim realities of modern Liberian youth. A good seafarer, Tweh brings home a good catch of fish every day. This enables him to attend Daniel E. Howard School. It is at this school that he befriends Lucretia, who sells cornbread and candy for her stepmother. Lucretia runs to school one afternoon when she discovers she is late. Consequently, the candy jar falls and breaks, thus emptying the cornbread and candy on the ground. Lucretia is frightened of her stepmother. Tweh intervenes, and the principal, Mr. Johnson, writes a letter to Mrs. Mantarda on Lucretia's behalf, to no avail. The friendship between Tweh and Lucretia blossoms into a love affair when James Dennis, Lucretia's former boyfriend, mistreats her. As a result, she leaves him. Lucretia helps Tweh financially to enter Liberia College, now the University of Liberia. The relationship turns sour when Lucretia is discovered pregnant. Lucretia's father, however, coerces Tweh to marry her. They marry and have ten children, but only one child, Mary, survives and grows into adulthood. Eventually, Mary meets Clinton Simpson, who treats her with a cavalier deference. She falls in love with him and marries him. A philanthropist, Clinton Simpson is unable to consummate their marriage because an accident in a gold mine in Ghana, the former Gold Coast, emasculates him. Mary pities him and decides to

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remain his wife. The story ends tragically when Mr. Simpson dies from malaria. He leaves his wealth to his beloved wife, Mary, who remains a widow. The portrait of Liberia that emerges from Warner's harrowing short novel is so far removed from the popular image of a flourishing Africa's oldest country South of the Sahara that some readers might mistake Africa and Children for a work of doomsday fiction. Surely, the tragic deaths of Lucretia and Tweh's nine children and the emasculated Clinton Simpson can't really be that common in the Liberia we have known and loved-the potent, fertile, children-rearing people who splurge their wealthy bonuses and success on the number of children they have and boast of their mistresses and lovers. The major weakness of the novel lies in its point of view. The reader isn't sure from which vantage point the story is being told. In some chapters it would seem that the story is being told from an omniscient point of view, but in others, the author shifts to the editorial "we," and lapses into moralizing. Moreover, the author's language is far from literary. The author's use of vernacular Liberian English and Liberianisms, however, gives the book an authentic voice. It is Warner's triumph in this painful but largely convincing short novel that he confounds the traditional Liberian virtues and vices of faith, hope, happiness, success, a close-knit family, elitism, infidelity, sectionalism and ethnicity. He does so in such a winning style that although the heart sinks at the tragic lives of the characters, the spirit also soars because he sheds so much light on the sectionalism- ethnicity divide, a subject long left in the dark. Here is a portrait of love and tragedy that will stifle the most cynical of yawns.

Robert H. Brown The reviewer is a Liberian Liberianist, and has taught at the University of Liberia

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New Publications and Theses on or Relevant to Liberia

Aadema, Verna and Cepeda, Joe. Koi and the Kola Nuts: A Tale from Liberia. New York: Atheneum Books, 1999.

Azimi, Nassrine. Humanitarian Action and Peacekeeping Operations. London: Klawer Law International, 1998.

Burim, Eric. "The Peculiar Solution: The American Colonization Society and Antislavery Sentiment in the South, 1820-1860." Ph.D. dissertation. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1999.

The Carter Center. Observing the 1997 Special Elections Process in Liberia. Atlanta, Ga.: The Carter Center, 1998.

DeShield, Sadie L. and DeShield, Leonard T. Beneath the Cold War: The Death of a Nation. Greensboro, N.C.: Leoles Enterprise, 1999.

Ellis, Stephen. The Mask of Anarchy: The Destruction of Liberia and the Religious Dimension of an African Civil War. New York: New York University Press, 1999.

Hampton, Janie and Deng, Francis. Internally Displaced People. London: Earthscan, 1998.

Hegarty, Angela and Leonard, Siobhan. Human Rights: An Agenda for the 21" Century. New York: Cavendish Publishing, Ltd., 1999.

Lyons, Terrence. Voting for Peace: Post-Conflict Elections in Liberia, Studies in Foreign Policy. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press, 1998.

Liberian Studies Journal, XXIV, 2 (1999)

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Ngovo, Bernard L. "The Dominance of English among Liberian Children: An Inquiry into the Language in Primary Use among Children of Liberian Parents in Liberia and the United States," English Today, vol. 15, no. 4 (1999), pp. 44-48.

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Njoh, J. Through the Liberian Storm. New York: Minerva Press, 1996.

Park, Eunjin. "Black and White American Methodist Missionaries in Liberia, 1820-1875." Ph.D. dissertation. Columbia University, 1999.

Ratner, R. Steven and Abrams, S. Janson. Accountability for Human Rights Atrocities in International Law. London, Clarendon Press, 1997.

Robertson, Geoffrey. Crimes Against Humanity. New York: Allen Lane The Penguin Press, 1999.

Tomasenski, Katarina. Between Sanctions and Elections. London: Printer Publishers, 1997.

Wesley, P. Jabbeh. Before the Palm Could Bloom: Poems ofAfrica. New York: New Issues Press, 1998.

VanSickle, Eugene, "The Missionary Presence and Challenge in Maryland in Liberia, 1834-1842." M.A. thesis. West Virginia University, 2000.

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Documents

FOUR MEN, THREE GENERATIONS: Interviews with Four Americo-Liberians

The four men who were interviewed for this piece represent three (or, perhaps, two-and-a-half) generations of Americo-Liberians. Jimmy Barrolle is 78 and Lawrence Morgan is 74; Eugene Cooper is 56; and Archie Bernard is 44. Morgan, Cooper and Bernard come from two of the most powerful and wealthy families in the country. Barrolle, a Kru man from Cape Palmas County, is the odd man out. But, while born to a poor family, he was legally adopted as President William Tubman's ward, officially hired as Tubman's butler, and clandestinely served as bagman, hand delivering pay-offs for the "old man." By the familial assimilation practiced by the Americo elite, he qualifies as one of their own. All four interviews were conducted in private homes in Monrovia, during the months of February and March 1997. (The interview with Archie Bernard occurred over several sessions.) The articles, though transcribed verbatim, have been edited in parts; such editing is placed in brackets. In addition, because the interviews often took digressions, various questions and answers have been shifted around so that the narrative flows more smoothly, though nothing is taken out of context.

JIMMY BARROLLE

I met Jimmy Barrolle at the offices of Togba Nah-Tipoteh, a political activist and Harvard-trained economist. Tipoteh introduced Barrolle as his "uncle," an affectionate, albeit fictive, title frequently used in Liberia when addressing an older friend. In his serge suit and 1950s-era fedora, Barrolle was the image of the old- fashioned Liberian of generations gone by. He spoke Liberian English of the so- called "civilized" variety, an elegant, formal blend of accents from West Africa, the West Indies and Dixie.

Liberian Studies Journal, XXIV, 2 (1999)

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Tipoteh, who I had come to interview, left the room to attend to affairs, giving Barrolle and I a chance to chat briefly. Barrolle mostly talked about Charles Taylor and why he was "a wicked man." Just as I was asking him the reasons for this, Tipoteh returned. Barrolle and I made an appointment for the following Monday. Barrolle, Tipoteh informed me, had been President William Tubman's butler. I subsequently learned he was a whole lot more than that. To borrow a title from organized crime, a not entirely inappropriate reference for the Tubman administration, Barrolle was the president's "bagman." When Tubman needed to pay someone off, he sent Barrolle. And while the butler claims he never stole a dime from Tubman, he was a very prosperous man when his boss died in 1971. Everybody in Monrovia, it seems, knows Jimmy Barrolle. Older folks remember him from his days in the Executive Mansion. Young people know his Mighty Barrolle club, one of Liberian football's stronger competitors. The taxi driver knew exactly where to drop me off on Johnson Road and I was escorted to his house by a local teenager-it later turned out to be one of his sons-who led me through a maze of alleys worthy of the Casbah. Barrolle was just waking from his afternoon nap and spent the interview sitting on the edge of his bed. There was a little girl in the room, about 5 years, who I presumed was his grandchild. I was wrong. She was his daughter. The 78-year old Barrolle claims he has had five wives during his life and sired 65 children. When I asked him if the wives came one at a time or several at once, he chuckled. It was late afternoon and the room was dim. There has been no central electricity in Monrovia for some time now and he apologized for it. The house, he explained, was up the road from the Barclay Training Center, a major battlefield in the April 1996 struggle for Monrovia. Before the interview began, Barrolle pointed out two bullet holes in the wall, just beneath a framed portrait of Tubman. "I stayed in the house," he recalled. "The NPFL [National Patriotic Front of Liberia, Charles Taylor's forces] was on this side, shooting, and Barclay [Training Center, headquarters for remnants of the Armed Forces of Liberia] people were on the other

side. Everything going through. Stray bullets dropped in the house. 1 just stayed here and prayed."

James Ciment: You knew Tubman a long time?

Jimmy Barrolle: That's right.

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JC: How did you meet him?

JB: I went to school with Tubman. After Tubman left school, my uncle took me to see him, because Tubman was a tailor. He used to sew clothes. My uncle was a washerman for him and my uncle took me to him so as to teach me a trade, how to sew. When I got to him [Tubman], he looked at me a long time and told my uncle, 'I love this boy very much, but between him and myself, we are not equal, but I love him anyway. I never have a boy child before and I would like to take this young man to be my son.' Tubman asked me, 'I take your name from Jimmy Barrolle to Jimmy Tubman.' And I said, 'No, I would like to keep my father's name. I love my father's name.' He asked me, what school I was going to. I told him I graduated from the Catholic Mission. I was about 18 years old. In a year's time, he sent for me again. He said, 'Jimmy, I miss you so much. I want you to still work for me. I'm expecting to become senator.' I said, 'OK, sir.' So that very year, he became senator. He was the youngest senator in Cape Palmas.

JC: And so you went with Tubman to Monrovia?

JB: That's right, we came up here. During those days, we had no plane and no road. You travelled by sea and by rowboat.

JC: And in Monrovia?

JB: President [Edwin] Barclay met him at that time and say, 'Young man, you Shad Tubman? You senator from Cape Palmas.' And Tubman say, 'Why you ask?' Barclay say, 'There's no man in Cape Palmas?' Tubman, he was too young. Then Barclay say, 'You should come to me at the mansion. I would like to see you.' Tubman say to me, 'Jimmy, what does he want with me? Should I go?' I say, 'Yes, the president invite you, you should go.'

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He went to the mansion-This was at the old mansion-and the president ask him a few things.

JC: And you were in the room?

JB: I was in the room. [Barclay] ask, 'Why you so clever?' `God, make me clever. My father was a reverend and he taught me how to be obedient and respect old people,' [Tubman said]. `I want you to succeed me.' `Succeed you?' `To become the big president. It is almost time for me to resign and I want you to take over.' `I don't think I would like to be president.' 'Why?' `I want to be chief justice.' `You want to be chief justice. Ohhh, Tubman, don't you know the president is higher than the chief justice?' `Yes sir, I know that only one can be chief justice.' `But I want you to succeed me. Tomorrow night, I want you to come here and I'm going to have the cabinet right here and I will give you my answer on paper and put you in a room and close the door and I will have my cabinet ministers right in here, next door.' So while the president was in that room with the pencil and paper and everything and the cabinet ministers were in there. So Barclay ask all the cabinet ministers, 'It is time for me to resign. Who around me want to be president, I want you to sign this paper.' Nearly everybody sign it.

JC: Like today.

JB: [chuckles] Like today. So the [future] president [Tubman], me and him sat in the room. We talked over everything. Everybody was happy and talking and such [in the other room]. I hear Barclay ask them, 'You all signed to be president. Why did you all sign? How many presidents can there be? You all never asked me who I want to succeed myself.'

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`Ohhh,' they say, 'Mr. President, we didn't ask you, but who do you want to be your successor.' He said, 'Shad Tubman.' `Shad Tubman!' Everybody say, 'Shad Tubman is a drunkard. Shad Tubman love a lot of women. You make him president and you spoil the country, Mr. President.'

JC: Why did Barclay want Tubman so badly?

JB: I don't know why Barclay wanted him. The big men in Monrovia didn't like anybody from outside becoming president. But people have been coming from Grand Bassa [County] and Cape Mount. Only have five counties then. Sinoe and Cape Palmas had no presidents. No. Sinoe had one, name was [Edward] Roye. Only one VP you had from Cape Mount. It was [Allen] Yancy, during the President [Charles B.D.] King's administration, and he didn't come off well because of the slave trade. So Barclay say, 'I think if you are going to succeed me, you should be happy.' Tubman say, 'Yes sir. But I think I should tell my wife and family. Whatever they say, and prayer, and whatever my God will say to me. And when I come back I will give you an answer.' From that night, Tubman knew all the people who like him, who didn't like him, who said bad things about him. He knew all, everything.

JC: His wife agreed?

JB: We went to Cape Palmas. His wife was expecting, but [they were] not married then. And she said, 'Alright.' We came back to session [of Congress] again. Barclay say, 'You ready now.' Tubman say, 'Yes sir. I agree to become President, but I see I have so much opposition. How will I manage?' Barclay say, 'Forget about opposition. The only opposition you got against you that matters is God, Jesus Christ. If Jesus against you, nobody else matters. I hear say that your father was a preacher and you were going

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to take the prayer [the calling] and he had a vision that you agreed to be president. Nobody going to do anything to you.' And that's how Tubman became president of this country. I believe-not because I worked for him-I believe that he was one of the best of the 18 presidents of this country. Never took advantage of anybody, tried to keep straight. But he knew you cannot satisfy humans; somebody has something to say about you. He was a man that-I don't know how to describe him-but he was a God-chosen man and he took over the government.

JC: And Tubman won and was inaugurated. What was that like?

JB: They sent all over the country, cultural dances and lot of people and government ministers get together. Then the old man who is going to retire, he sat in the chair and who he would put there sat near him. Then after the minister said a prayer, then he got up and say from today, I resign from the Liberian government as president. But I ask Mr. Tubman to succeed me and therefore from today Mr. Tubman be the president of the Republic of Liberia, and they shoot one cannon. People dressed in morning clothes, blacktails, hat. Tubman, he was a formal man.

JC: And what did Tubman do?

JB: When the president took over the government, not one street, just unpaved roads. We had nothing, no public buildings. Every building from 70 years back, from [President] J.J. Roberts, just a few brick buildings. Mr. Tubman building things up. Tubman was the man to build the first public building in the country, all the other buildings that the government was using, it leased. Tubman got there and he first built the information [ministry], next he built the city hall, then he built the president's mansion and the law courts, then he begin to put in the streets and build the road up to Gbarnga.

JC: You traveled with Tubman?

JB: Ohhh. We went to the U.S. during President Eisenhower's administration. After we reached, we had a banquet. The next day, the president [Tubman]

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went to the Mayflower Hotel to have the return banquet, because we didn't have a good embassy there. We left from there and went to Georgia. His mother was from Georgia and he laid a wreath on the grave and the family there gave him a watch. Then we was on our way to Oklahoma where [the] president's father was born. His father [Alexander Tubman] was an old slave from Africa. But we did not reach to Oklahoma. We went as far as Chicago and met the governor [Adlai Stevenson] who, at that time, was running for president. After we got there [Chicago], he [Tubman] got the influenza, because he was not in the cold for a long time and he said, 'Jimmy, I think it is time to go back.' We came back to Washington. He [Stevenson] invited the president to Baltimore to a school and he [Tubman] made a speech. There was 20 pressmen on him and they wanted to know where he learned his English, what school he went to. He said I never came to Europe or the United States to go to school. 'I went to school right there in Africa,' [he said]. They couldn't believe it. He knew English like that.

JC: And what was your role on these trips? Or in general?

JB: I was his butler, he trust me with his purse since I worked with the president and I was staying with him eight years before he became president. He never give one cent to anybody. He did this, everything he would give, he would give to me and I would take it. He would say, 'Give Peter five dollars.' He trusted me too [very] much.

JC: Then he and Barclay had some problems.

JB: Barclay came back because what he should have done, he didn't do it. And when Tubman did all these things, it shamed him and Barclay wanted to come back and correct his mistakes [but] people would not give him any chance.

JC: That was it?

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JB: After Tubman got in the mansion, his wife died [and] he got married again. Every time Tubman would come to the mansion when Barclay was president he would see his niece. He wrote to President Barclay that he wanted to marry his niece. Barclay refused and that's what the row came from. When Barclay gave up his seat to Tubman at the inauguration, it was raining. So Barclay say, we should share a ride and go in a car to the mansion. Tubman said, 'No, we are going to march to the mansion, with the Cape Palmas band in the lead and Liberian folk dancers in the rear, and we will march.' Barclay say 'It was raining. And I say, we must ride in a car.' So President Tubman say, 'Mr. Barclay, it is not your time, so you cannot force me to ride from the square here to the mansion.' Barclay left the place, he went to his house and never spoke to Tubman anymore. The man he loved so dearly-he thought if he put Tubman there, he could tell him what to do, but Tubman wouldn't do it. Tubman married his niece [Antoinette Padmore] against Barclay's will and she is a widow now. They stayed married until his death. She was much younger than Tubman and now lives in Oklahoma.

JC: I understand you were with Tubman when he died.

JB: Tubman died in London on my lap. Since he was president, anywhere he would go in the world, he would take me. I was sitting at the head of the bed in the hospital. They rolled him in. Laying on my lap, he last words were: `Jimmy, send a radiogram to here [Monrovia], send a message back home.' He say this to me even though his secretary was there. When I look him and I couldn't imagine himself dead. When they rush in the room, Dr. Monroe say, 'This man is going.' And I say, 'No, this man is dead.' I spoke in my country dialect to the chief of security. `Tubman is dead, you must go with him. These people killed the president. It was not a natural death.'

JC: It wasn't a natural death?

JB: They kept him in the operation there for 1 hour and 45 minutes and they castrate him. The doctors kill him, because that doctor, Dr. Monroe, he was

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paid. He didn't get any doctor to work on Tubman. He got a South African doctor. Tolbert paid the doctor. Tolbert say, he has been VP for 19 years. Why couldn't this man [Tubman] give up to let him take over?

JC: And then you came back to Monrovia?

JB: After Tubman's death, I went out of my head. I jumped in the street, run between the cars. People say, 'There is a crazy black man running between the cars.' And a policeman came up to me and he say, 'Sir, what is the trouble?'-`I just been to the clinic.' And he say, 'Oh, the man that died there, this is one of his boys.' I stayed there and came for the remains and carried back to the funeral home. Then I came back to Liberia. Mr. Tolbert wanted me to work with him and I say, no. I say that 'My bossman died and he is the one that I am used to and I won't work for nobody else.' I run my farm, a rubber farm down in Bassa, 500 acres, the high- yielding rubber, brought all my rubber down to Firestone, like before the war. Tolbert say, `If you don't work for me, I'm not going to give you any pension.' And I say, 'I don't care for no pension. I am too old to work for anyone else. If you ring the bell and say `go get Jimmy' and I take time to stretch and get to you, I couldn't work like that. You can make me anything, but so long as my president and my pal is gone, I don't want to work for anyone.'

JC: How did you come to get a soccer team named after you?

JB: In 1952, when I was working for Mr. Tubman, we had one small team and every time the boys wanted a better team. My mate, Joseph Sherman, in Bassa, say, 'bossman, the team here, why not change the team and make it Barrolle 11 and make the boys practice.' Tubman say this too and we changed the team's name from Amemweh, the Bassa word meaning 'we died before' to Mighty Barrolle. Sometime we go to Guinea. If the president was invited, the team comes. We go to Ghana, to Nigeria. We play the teams there. Because the team was too good, we were champions twice.

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JC: The other day you said you were going to tell me why Taylor is a such a rogue.

JB: Charles Taylor had been one of the president's of my team. He assisted the team when he was working with GSA [General Services Agency]. He liked the team and we turned the team over to him. Twice since he has gone to Gbarnga, he called me to bring the team and I did it. But I find out he just want to use me as a tool. He wanted just me to go on the field and get the crowd say heh, heh. But they took everything from me. They [Taylor's National Patriotic Liberation Front, NPFL] went to my rubber farm. I had seven cows, 200 goats, three trucks-a latex truck and two other big trucks and four small ones, they took everything. They destroyed everything. They took everything from me. When the rebel leaders met in town, I went to him and say, everything I have is gone. You have been using my houses since the war start and when I go to them [Taylor's people], they say, 'No money. Get a new government before we pay you.' My children need education, they going hungry. And my daughter went to him. Elizabeth, she's working for him.

JC: That must make you angry.

JB: Yes, I am very angry with her for working for him.

JC: And April 6 [1996, the name given for the battle of Monrovia]?

JB: April 6, I went to my church, the Methodist church. That Sunday was Easter. After I got to church, I put in a night to protect the church. Human beings in the streets with arms, running up to Greystone from Barclay.

JC: What led to this trouble?

JB: Jealousy! Mr. Doe, he was not a educated man and he had the government for five years. So the people say that that's too much, let him go to the ballot box and vote. But Doe burned the ballot boxes, therefore Doe had more votes than the other one and became president a second time.

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JC: And Taylor? What do you think his role in all this is?

JB: The Liberian people in the U.S., they took Charles Taylor and sent him to take Doe out of the chair. Then he will turn the country over to the Liberian people, free the country. But he didn't do it. The Liberian people in the U.S. say that they didn't send Mr. Taylor to become president, he was sent to do a job. After the job, he was supposed to turn it over to them. But Mr. Taylor say, 'I can't stay in the bush the rest of my life for someone else to become president. I must become president.' And that's where we are right now.

ARCHIE BERNARD

Archie Bernard, scion of the Bernard family, is among the richest men in Liberia, at least potentially. Unfortunately, the Y.E.S. business empire he inherited from his father lays in ruins. The hotels and gas stations have been looted, the trucks stolen, and the office buildings occupied by displaced persons. It is a situation not unique to Liberia. Like the planter class following America's Civil War, Bernard is land poor. He has property but no income. Not that Bernard is completely broke. He had enough money to send his five children to attend school in the States and he visits them at least once a year. (He, himself, attended college in Michigan). He currently heads the United Methodist aid mission in Liberia. His house, at the end of Mamba Point, is one of the few unlooted structures in Monrovia, and thereby hangs a tale that says much about the man. In happier days, Bernard, 44, helped run the Liberian soccer federation, using his family's fleet of trucks to send teams on road trips. In so doing, he got to know and came to be respected by hundreds, if not thousands, of young Liberian men. When he began to sense trouble was coming to Monrovia in April 1996, he recruited a team of former soccer players-now well-armed fighters-to guard his house. Bernard is a familiar character in a political drama that is not unique to Liberia; he is the product of the upper class who has turned on his own, at least rhetorically. As the interview makes clear, he blames the greed and arrogance of the settlers for his country's current troubles. He is, in effect, a kind of Jeffersonian figure transplanted to Africa. Liberia's future, he believes, will only be secured if the people return to the land and forge a democracy based on the communal ideals of the African village and tribe. He feels

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a sense of noblesse oblige to bring that dream to fruition, even as he enjoys the privileges of his class. And like the sage of Monticello, he is a fascinating conversationalist. I stayed at Bernard's house during my stay in Liberia and had a chance to talk with him frequently. The following interview was conducted on several occasions, usually in the garden gazebo, before the electricity from the neighborhood generator kicked in at 7 p.m. and lights came back on in the main house.

James Ciment: You've got a bone to pick with your class and your ancestors. Why?

Archie Bernard: It's like this. It just got to the point where a rich local would go into the village, break the dowry system, and just take the woman. And then it extended from the women to the land. They could go and induce the people into forced labor. That was their manifest destiny. That was one side. On the other side, the settler population began to promote education, especially through the churches and stuff and the indigenous population got more educated. But there was a lack of economic opportunity. You saw a situation in which I never had to fill out an application in Liberia until I filled out one when I applied to the UN. I was always guaranteed a job and even up to now, if I want to work wherever, it's the connection. Because, in fact, many of the indigenous people who did make progress, they shunted their traditional ways and took on the ways of the settlers. But the lack of opportunity. You see a Lebanese get off the boat today and tomorrow he has a store. They come with capital and more importantly they've got their people who will pool together to support them. Young poor Liberian from the village could not walk into the bank and get a loan unless he had a patron. You had to assimilate, be part of the sycophancy, the perversion. To a large extent, it helped to be well-born. That was part of it. You do not educate a man in Liberia and show him the good life and let him intermingle with your children and [he will] enjoy you putting your foot on his head forever. You see, on the one hand, I think our elders had an obligation to learn from their experiences with slavery and all that, to come here and try and make it an all-embracing society, because the concept under which this society was formed was as a beacon of freedom. So any man who came here was naturally free; my

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grandfather came here with Marcus Garvey and as soon as he got off the boat he was given two town lots and 40 acres in the interior, automatically. But the indigenous [man], coming in from the bush, he got nothing. They didn't set up those structures. In fact, that was why it was so easy for foreigners to take the country. The French took a good part of the southeast and the British took, whatever, all the way up to Sherbro Island [in Sierra Leone]. It was easy because of that. [The settlers] came and they brought that plantation mentality. Can you blame them? The only kind of administration they had learned [was] through the master's door, and even that was in a clandestine manner. You see it and you don't understand it fully and yet you try and adopt it. There was no avenue of opportunity, so in rebelling, they couldn't go through due process.

JC: But I thought [President William V.S.] Tubman tried to change all that with his unification policy?

AB: All of Tubman's reforms were superficial. The decisions were all being made up at the Masonic temple. These guys could have used the Christianity to teach the work ethnic, to show the people that by hard work they could achieve, by opening up these avenues. But these avenues were all closed up so this teaching of the work ethic was all bullshit. Only you and the people you were related to succeeded.

JC: Yet I hear lots of people talking about the Tubman years as good times for Liberia?

AB: [Tubman] had connections. His ministers went to school with the Kennedys. This is why Liberia was on the easy street because we had people who just liked Liberia. You even had the African Americans and they had started to come and invest here, and even some of the other Africans. But then again, at critical stages, they took the wrong turn, they opted for expediency. And there again, it was the old guards: 'Don't give these people a chance, if you give them a chance, all hell is going to break loose.' True, but all hell has broken loose anyhow.

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JC: So when the good times disappeared, or when the expectations rose too high, it was [President William] Tolbert left to pick up the pieces?

AB: Tolbert had his own style and it was too slow. He was able to handle it all by mass education but Tolbert fell victim to it also. He had been VP for 18 years. And a lot of these [indigenous] people were coming back home [from education abroad] and demanding their piece of affirmative action, saying: `Hey, we're part of this too. This is why the old man [Tubman] told us to go to school. So where is my opportunity? I don't have to be your boy before I can make progress. It's not a criteria.' The perversion of it. Even as a Baptist minister, [Tolbert] took the decision to suppress them instead of opening opportunities.

JC: And this led to the radical agenda of MOJA [Movement for Justice in Africa] and other groups in the '70s?

AB: It didn't change up to 1980. In fact, a new thing was introduced. If you read Das Kapital, it gets to be hypnotic. You see young people, their minds get to have a yearning for an avenue to relieve all this pent-up frustration. At the end of the day, the young man is highly educated and can't get a job, blah, blah, blah. And so he gets this thing [radical ideology] and you listen to a person who is articulate and you can almost be hypnotized by it. So you get this group of young guys who were just fed up. They were tired of the revenue agents going up into the villages and putting their people into chains and shackles for unpaid labor. It was still going on in the 1960s and 1970s, as it was in the 1920s. During the 1970s, when the guys were promoting this Communist Manifesto, they were disavowing all of the traditional points of reference. They were desecrating it both in their words and in their actions. `Ohhh,' they said, 'Christianity is just a white man's way of thinking; ohhh, a tribal elder is keeping us managed while the big people are still suppressing us.' So that had a big part to play in the collapse of values.

JC: How did the [Samuel K.] Doe regime contribute to the war?

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AB: It helped Charles Taylor. Doe had so disappointed the indigenous people. Can you imagine the first indigenous president? There was this great expectation. And he came in and he started to act worse than the settlers in that first he started to purge the army of all the trained people. Basically, soldiers were the first ones to empower Doe. [Indigenous people would say], 'If my son was a soldier in Monrovia, naturally that gives me a certain amount of respect and protection of the village.' And if he was there no longer, then of course the enemies saw their chance. That aspect eroded the unity of the indigenous consciousness. I also think Doe was manipulated to an extent by some of the old guard who were of his tribe but, in fact, were more loyal to the old power elite. I know it because I know their style. It's more of a crafty style. They're Masons. Doe revered the late Tubman. Somehow or other he had met Tubman in his youth and he worshipped the ground Tubman walked on. He sent for all the old newsreels and just spent hours watching. The quickest way to get him to do something was to tell him Tubman would have done it this way. Doe would say: `Tubman suppressed the enemy; Tubman was crafty'-so he tried to do that. His tribesmen did him more harm than good because they used him-a 10th grade educated person-and even though he was a quick study. If you sit me in front of the computer I can never know the computer like someone who uses it daily because there are certain nuances. [Doe] became a half-educated fool and they used him and the suppression. When he finally realized that he had boxed himself into a corner, he only became what he knew best: to be a warrior, to revert to the heathenism and the cannibalism and all of that.

JC: And Taylor. He comes in and plays on all the indigenous animosity toward Doe?

AB: Charles Taylor did not come to Liberia on his own, no. He was supported by the remnants of the old power elite who wanted to capture paradise once lost. And also the people we call progressives, the [Amos] Sawyers and them who thought that Doe was a military man and the Americans were behind him and that the only way now [in 1989] is through insurrection. Because we tried it through elections. The Americans came and, even though

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everybody saw it was a bogus election, they declared it 'reasonably free and fair.' So that militated against any form of traditional approach, dialogue.

JC: So Taylor is a tool of the old elite? But how does that explain his rapid gains in the hinterland back in 1990?

AB: Taylor was actually anointed by the zoes [shamans] and the elders of this country. They say [to Taylor]: 'OK, come and take it.' They have the zoe bush. They pass the word. And when a zoe tells you something, the level of credibility is only second to that of the Almighty, unless your mother tells you something different. Their influence is that profound. They sanctioned Taylor [but on the way to Monrovia, something went wrong. Some of Taylor's people or even him, the perversions. It's like the zoes now are grappling with how to regain this lost credibility because-can you imagine?-the critical juncture of how that person is linked to the tribal ethos has been undermined.

JC: How do you repair that? Through a new village ethos? Or with a new kind of Liberian nationalism?

AB: Both. Even the African American feels that America is his home. Here, it's what tribe you are from first, more than whether you are from Liberia or not. That is what tarnished our sovereignty. Now, you see more of this [nationalism], because many Liberians have gone next door or beyond and they have seen how nationalistic the other Africans are. There is this new evolution toward nationalism. It's coming about. You go to Lagos and a Nigerian is a Nigerian first. Ghanaian are naturally the best. They will tell you that. They stick their chest out.

JC: Like during the World Cup?

AB: It's interesting about football because during these seven years of war, any time the national team played, that was the only day no Liberians died in the war. The fighters put their arms down for the 90 minutes.

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JC: But wasn't a common identity, a Liberian nationalism, Liberia's long and proud history of independence, taught in the schools.

AB: I don't think many of them [indigenous] knew about it [Liberia's role as beacon of black race]. Not enough of the part that their people played in the history was ever written in the books. Even those good writers like Bai T. Moore, who was one of our first real scribes, even he didn't get the kind of backing to get his works published as did Doris Banks Henries, who was wife of [the] former speaker of the house. She wrote a civics text for Liberian schools and we had to read it in 6th grade. It was only in the 1980s, that the writings of Bai T. Moore began to be part of the curriculum. But there again we heard about Mathilda Newport firing the cannon and killing all the natives.

JC: You were born to the elite. When did you start seeing them so critically?

AB: I was a boy and [Nelson] Mandela came to visit Tubman and my father took me to meet the great hero. This must have been around 1960. And when I saw Mandela look the old man right in his eye, no deference like everybody else. This politicized me.

JC: Alright, jump forward a bit. What about April 6? What happened to the citizens of Monrovia?

AB: It was crazy. ECOMOG got involved by siding with [ULIMO-J head Roosevelt] Johnson or, at least, there was a faction of ECOMOG that did. They move him from their headquarters to BTC [Barclay Training Center] and arm his people. Taylor came in to arrest Johnson with 50 men and fell into an ambush. Once his men were wiped out, Taylor says `F--- it' and starts sending in truckloads of his men. Tells them it's 'operation pay yourself.' The big guys went after the NGOs' [non-governmental organizations] and UN stuff, then the little guys went into the neighborhoods and it was vendetta time-going after anyone who had more than they did.

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In West Point, beneath Mamba Point-worst ghetto in Monrovia- lots of demobilized fighters from the countryside, away from their old comrades, but refused by their villages and families, totally marginalized. Taylor's forces come in with a truckload of guns and give it to them, little kids who could hardly pick up the weapons. It was complete breakdown of social order. You could hear shots and screams coming from Greystone Compound, but you couldn't do nothing. In front [of the house] was an execution spot. The fighters would tell their prisoners to run toward the cliffs and then fire at them. Some made it; some didn't.

JC: I understand you got involved in the anti-Doe struggle?

AB: I helped get supplies to Taylor's army, but that was back in 1990. Doe had killed some of my family and it turned me into a supporter of anyone who could get rid of him.

JC: So what about the Americo elite. I know you come down on the side that say they are still running things.

AB: Of course. I've seen them and I've worked with them. Like in court, all these Mason lawyers give each other secret signals in court and that's how the cases get decided. So no one ever goes to court.

JC: Let me get this straight. The Masons are still working behind the scenes?

AB: Yes.

JC: And they still run the show?

AB: Not entirely. You see, they still have a higher authority to answer to.

JC: I don't presume that's God.

AB: It's the ITC [International Trust Company]. Take Benton Urey, he heads it, a Taylor man. Taylor tells him to make the ITC cough up more money for

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Liberia, and they hit Urey hard. It was like an ant attacking an elephant. Urey's family is now in U.S., but Urey can't get a visa to go and visit them. He even went to the Ivory Coast, but got turned down there too. He's up against former top military people-Marines!-who run ITC. I told him he is making a mistake going after these guys. But he doesn't have the nerve to say 'no' to Taylor and his plans. ITC was founded shortly after World War II. They set up a scholarship fund that allowed both elites and smart poor kids to obtain an education abroad, so that they would become part of the elite. Now both the old establishment and the radicals are part of the entrenched elite. This is how the system perpetuates itself here.

JC: And you? You want to end this? What role do you want to play in a future democratic government?

AB: I am going to sue everyone of these warlords who looted my property and killed my family. Then I'm going to get on the bench of the Supreme Court.

LAWRENCE MORGAN

Lawrence Morgan, 74, is chairman and president of LAM and Associates, a consulting firm based in Monrovia. A lawyer by training, Morgan hails from one of the country's most prestigious settler families, whom he referred to, in the old style, as "pioneers." His grandmother was among the so-called "group of nine families" that came from the Caribbean island of Barbados in the late 19th century. Other members of this group included the Grimes, who produced, among others, one of Liberia's chief justices, and the Barclays, two of whose scions would serve as the republic's presidents in the early and mid-20th century. Morgan has 12 biological children and a number of adopted ones. "The big family," he said, "was a matter of choice, customary. I guess we were never sensitized, but economics played a major part. Education was cheap, even to send [the children] to the U.S. for it." Like many settler elites, Morgan has old connections to the United States. He attended Cornell University where he worked on "law projects connected to Liberia" and did business in New York City. He says he has been going back and

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forth since the early 1970s, a fact which led him to buy a house in Queens in 1976. "I was," he remarked, "one of the few Liberians to have a bit of money." We spoke at Morgan's spacious and airy apartment on Broad Street. It is situated above the local police station. Like virtually all homes in Monrovia, the place had been stripped clean by looters during the April 6 (1996) crisis and the furniture consisted of several long couches on a bare linoleum floor. Being a Saturday, Morgan was casually dressed in slacks and t-shirt. Several younger members of Morgan's family, including both biological and adopted children, were in quiet attendance. The same could not be said for Liberians on the street outside. Through the windows could be heard blaring radios and a background drone of conversations and vendors' cries punctuated by occasional singing and loud shouting. There was an edge to the noise as well. The day before, Al-Haji Kromah, former leader of the ULIMO-K military faction and now candidate for president, had just been placed under house arrest by ECOMOG after a raid on his compound came up with three truckloads of weapons, in clear violation of the Abuja peace accords. Monrovia was abuzz with the news. It was a humid, cloudy afternoon, following a rare dry season thunderstorm. Before I could turn on the tape recorder, the lawyer in Morgan got the best of me. He joked, "I never knew what good came to the interviewee through one of those things."

James Ciment: People tell me of the old days. "Sweet Liberia," I've heard it called. What does "Sweet Liberia" mean to you?

Lawrence Morgan: [laughing] Even the houseboys had bicycles and TVs and everybody got along, a real sense of community-pioneers, natives, everyone together. You could leave your wallet on the street and go back the next day and pick it up.

JC: You know, I'm never quite comfortable with the common usage here of "civilized" and "tribal" to describe classes of people in Liberian. They would be considered a bit condescending in the United States. Are they? What do these words mean to you?

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LM: No. They just mean the different customs between pilgrims and native people. Civilized behavior, as accepted at the time [before the 1980 coup], followed the behavior of the Western world, not necessarily just dressing, though it included that, but table manners, ordinary courtesies, and behaving yourself in public. Pioneers would dress formally, to show the world that they were more Western than African, with tailcoats and top hats.

JC: So relations between the two were good?

LM: The indigenous people showed a lot of respect. The natives looked up to the pioneers as their leaders, their masters. There's no question about that. The pilgrims were attuned to civilized customs in their homes, so they would try and discipline [the natives]. Some of [the natives] were very talented and learned very quickly. In many families, [the natives] were treated like [the pioneer family's] very own. There developed a camaraderie between the two. It wasn't all one way, either. One of the things that pioneers learned over the years was that there were certain behaviors of indigenous people that were commendable. The Liberian climate was suitable for the kind of dress that was purely indigenous to Liberia, and pioneers adjusted.

JC: And the ward system [whereby native children were adopted into settler families]?

LM: I have many boys and girls who are not related to me by blood but who call me "daddy." I treat them in every way like my own children. There are two indigenous ones and they want to get married and I'm giving them a place to live because I raised the boy. They are my children too. A large number of pioneers act the same, but some couldn't accept [native children] and treated them badly. There was segregation. You had five or six children and you might like one and not like the other. But there was no separation by the color of their skin.

JC: But this relationship changed over the years?

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LM: Oh yes. This gradually changed with the large amount of inter-marriage that was taking place [between natives and settlers] and [President William] Tubman's policy of integration.

JC: How did that affect relations?

LM: [Tubman] thought that our constitution demanded that all Liberians have equal rights and should be given opportunities. He expected natives to stop their sectionalism and tribalism. And he expected the pilgrims to follow the law, in both letter and spirit, treat the natives as equals.

JC: I also heard Tubman ruled through fear.

LM: Tubman had the constitution amended to let him serve longer, for as many terms as the people would elect him. And this brought about a lot of dissatisfaction among his contemporaries. They felt he had done too much to perpetuate himself in office and so most of them withdrew our support. Tubman began to develop a fear of them. His security officers exploited that by telling him that there were several people out to get him. The more they told him, the more they frightened him. He went into seclusion. He started sending his armed dogs out to get people. No, that's too strong. This all mostly affected us, the elite. Tubman was very, very, very popular among the country people. He didn't need anybody to rig the election over there. Tubman could walk the streets and win the election any day. There was no question about it. He could walk the streets and nobody would touch him. I saw it. He did quite a bit of good, though much more could have been done.

JC: Was Tubman an autocrat then?

LM: He was at the top of the two centers of power-the True Whig Party and the Masons. The Masons had been one of the leading societies and their influence was felt over all the political parties. Nearly all of the social work was done by the Masons. [It was] not necessarily that you had to be a Mason to get anywhere in Liberian society. Catholics could not become Masons but

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there were quite a number of officials and ministers of government [who were Catholics].

JC: And you?

LM: [Laughing] I'm not Catholic.

JC: I meant, are you a Mason?

LM: [Laughing] I choose not to answer on the grounds it may incriminate me.

JC: Fair enough. But the Masonic temple up on Benson Street is an empty shell now. What brought about an end of all this?

LM: Two things happened: the coup of 1980, in which the Masonic temple was destroyed. The Masons fled, the temple was desecrated and the True Whig Party was destroyed. They [Doe and his National Democratic Party] took over their building, declared them illegal and that was the end of that.

JC: I'm told the Masons tried to bring Doe into the temple.

LM: I understand that but I wasn't here.

JC: My take on the years between 1944 [when Tubman came to power] and 1980 was that there were two distinct generations of settlers: an older conservative one and a young radical one. Do you agree?

LM: No, absolutely not! Prior to 1944, when Tubman became president, Liberia had little means. The budget was less than one million dollars! It came to one million dollars in forty-four. Tubman had begun to bring investment into the country, iron mines, timber exports, gold and diamond mining and other things. It was only after that time that the people began to become a little affluent. They did not have 20 or 30 graduates from universities when Tubman came in. Their experience in dealing with the international situation was almost zero. So naturally, the government had to be cautious in the

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expenditure of what resources were coming in. First, [it] had to get qualified people to do planning. But Tubman accomplished a lot. In the [President William] Tolbert years [1971-1980], Tolbert thought there could be improvement on policies that Tubman had initiated, but only in minor ways. In certain respects, he modified Tubman's style of rule. Tubman insisted on his top hats and tailcoats and Tolbert insisted on open-necked shirts, but nothing deeper than that.

JC: And where is the pioneer community today?

LM: Scattered. Now we are married with the indigenous people and we are all mixed up. The names [of the old settler families] used to mean something, but no longer.

JC: I've been told they are trying to make a comeback and Taylor is their man.

LM: Taylor is not someone who's going to bring back the old pioneer class. I will say this about him: of all the people who are contending for the presidency, Charles Taylor seems to be more sensible than anybody else. The rest are depending on their tribal affiliation. Bacchus [Matthews] has been trying through the years but he has never been able to convince anybody of his sincerity and his behavior has been very questionable. Now, there are some very capable people but they are not in the forefront.

JC: And the True Whigs?

LM: Rudolph Sherman [True Whig Party leader] is not important. The True Whig [Party] has lost its support.

JC: Getting back to the old settler society again. It had a special relationship to the U.S.. What was the attitude among the pioneers toward the U.S.?

LM: I was waiting for you to ask me that. Liberia was founded by the American Colonization Society. I know that name is a misnomer because at the time America was against colonization, so a society to colonize was inconsistent with their policies. But the intent of the organization was to resettle colored

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Americans. The real reason being that when Americans had children by black ladies and they posed an embarrassment, they [the fathers] decided to send them to a place where [the children] could build their own nation, their own state. They won't be an embarrassment for us [the Americans] and they [the blacks] can still be free people, and we will do this under the guise of restoring freed slaves, liberating them and giving them [an] opportunity to be repatriated. A brilliant thought. Nothing wrong with that. But when the U.S. undertook this noble adventure, she should have realized that these people had no training in nation-building and so they had no means of protecting themselves and laying the groundwork and foundation for building a nation. She should have been more dynamic on this score. The second thing that they should have realized was that there was an affinity between those here and the U.S. As [the] nation developed, [it] looked back at the U.S. as [its] heritage. Liberia provided a stepping stone to [the] North Africa campaign [of World War II]. Robertsfield was important, and our rubber was a strategic material. There's a tower here, Omega tower [built in the 1980s for tracking shipping]. Anything America wanted, Liberia did it without question

JC: And the $500 million given to Doe [by the Reagan administration]. What about that?

LM: Military hardware, wasted.

JC: What about American ex-patriates in Liberia in the old days?

LM: We had good race relations. I would like to say Liberia was-is-a place where white and black could live together. We had whites and blacks who lived here in perfect harmony. I had American families that came to my house and relaxed and I did the same thing in their house. A man from Texas, [it was segregated then] invited me to come, met me at the airport, and took me to his house. His wife prepared my food and I lived with them. He would do my laundry and he called his neighbors and told them why: because I had done the same thing for him and his family in Liberia. And

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this was not for a day, a week, a year, but for years. If he had trouble with the law here and the president asked him to go home, I went to the president and said why are you doing this? And the president said to me: you should be happy because you are going to take over all his business. I said, by no means, he will get everything he is entitled to. I meant it and I kept to it. We were human beings. Color meant nothing.

JC: And social life?

LM: [laughing] We ate palm butter and rice, and danced by the [incoherent] band. Liberians like celebrations. Even during the stress of the war, we would be in the cafes drinking beer and having a good time. For social life, there were lots of house parties. A foreigner came to Liberia and you met him. You would invite him to your home and your friends and relatives came in and you would have a party all day and night. And there was lots of dancing and lots of drinking places too.

JC: Then you sobered up and went to church?

LM: [laughing] Church was very, very important. The affluent contributed liberally to the churches. And so was education. Tubman saw the need for higher education and that was one of his strong points. He contributed to education, though I personally feel he needed to do two things: one, education should have been more addressed to the needs of the country, education relevant to Liberian needs, more technical in certain respects; two, it should have been more widespread. That should have been Liberian priority number one.

JC: A nation of lawyers, I've heard said?

LM: No, I wouldn't say that. Prior to 1974 or thereabouts, there were not even sufficient lawyers to man the courts in the several counties. [laughing] What they did say was that whenever a Liberian traveled anywhere he could defend himself!

JC: Things are bad in Liberia now?

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LM: Very bad.

JC: And yet you stay. Why?

LM: [laughing] Sweet Liberia. I looked for a place where I could advance myself, by my character, and a few tenets: work hard, be respectful of all men. And I was very successful. I found out in the U.S. [that] you have this racial problem. And although I had more than 20 whites working for me in Liberia-they called me boss in Liberia-when I went to the U.S. in the 1950s, I was segregated and there were places I couldn't go. And I say, though I will buy a home here [the U.S.], I will still go home to Liberia, where I am more than a number. When you mention Lawrence Morgan, it meant something. When I met people in society, the church, the crowds, I meant something and that is really important to me. That's why I stay in Liberia.

EUGENE COOPER

Eugene Cooper comes from one of the most notable settler families in Liberia. Few possess such an illustrious lineage: cabinet ministers, supreme court justices, legislators. Eugene's uncle-the man who raised him-was Ambassador to Haiti and the Court of Saint James. Cooper went to school in both countries and the U.S. An economist by training, Cooper wears several hats. When I asked him for his card, he gave me three: General Manager, Denco Shipping Lines; President, Liberian National Council of YMCAs; Chairman, Liberia Chamber of Commerce. He was matter-of-fact in his answers, even phlegmatic, except when it came to the radicals of the 1970s. In his passionate denunciation of their activities and character, his businessman's conservativism came to the fore. Cooper, 55, lives in the exclusive Mamba Point section of Monrovia, next door to the U.S. Embassy compound. His top floor apartment gave him an ideal spot to view the rescue operation of foreign nationals and Liberian VIPs during the April 6 [1996] crisis, when the Liberian civil war exploded in Monrovia. Like most of his fellow countrymen, Cooper, though physically unmolested, was left shaken by the experience.

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"In the rear [of my apartment] I could watch the evacuation ... so many ships and soldiers here just to rescue a handful of [American citizens]," he recalls. "And out the front side [of my apartment], I saw Liberians literally harassing one another, looting ... If I hadn't stayed here through all these different things, I would not have believed that our people were capable of doing such things to one another. It left me feeling very strange, and troubled." The interview was conducted at the house where I was staying near to Cooper's own apartment. Cooper came by early on a Monday morning, before going to work.

James Ciment: It seems like I hear people speak of "Sweet Liberia" when talking about Tubman times. What does "Sweet Liberia" mean to you?

Eugene Cooper: When things were going pretty well economically and socially. Lots of people were coming from other parts of Africa, seeking employment here, almost like this was the Switzerland of West Africa, particularly in the 1960s. [Social life] was excellent, people enjoyed it. Whatever little people received from the government salary was pretty low but it came on time. People were relatively happy. Social life in Monrovia was very open and we had a lot of expats and they mixed with the locals, especially compared with other African societies. Liberian society has always been pretty mobile. Liberians are more open to foreigners than other West African countries that I have seen. I think maybe because we didn't have this colonial system, a ruling elite that came from Europe. Because of that, we are more open to foreigners, particularly white people, to Americans and Europeans.

JC: And attitudes toward America itself?

EC: The dream of the average Liberian, when talking of going abroad, it was always America. If you hadn't been to America, you hadn't been abroad and I think this feeling is still there. A lot of other Africans who couldn't get to the States, would come to Liberia, get citizenship and then would be able to get a Liberian passport to get a visa to go to the U.S. It was much, much easier for Liberians to get a visa to go to the U.S. There's definitely a special relationship. There has been a lot of criticism of that over the past few years because of the situation here, [but]

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the very fact that the U.S. still maintained a mission here when everybody else was closing down means something. It was certainly a very close tie. The U.S. government had one of [its] biggest missions here, especially for Africa. It was a coordinating point for a lot of activity for America in Africa and the Middle East. There was a lot of interaction.

JC: What about relations with the rest of Africa? I've heard Liberia tried to keep itself separate, aloof.

EC: I wouldn't say closed off from Africa. Particularly during the [President William V.S.] Tubman era, [there] was the help to the whole liberation movement in Africa, financially [and] passports, like the whole situation in South Africa, the revolutionary leaders that Tubman sponsored [and gave scholarships [to]. But he did it extremely quietly and in that way Liberia had a very special role in the whole independent movement in Africa. To that extent, the rest of our brothers and sisters in Africa, though we are a very small country, we did a lot.

JC: Internally, though, Liberia had social problems, a social divide between settlers and natives. I hear talk of "black colonialism."

EC: Sometimes, it's a little bit exaggerated. There was [more] mobility compared to other African societies. If you were educated and hardworking, you could make it and once you made it, you were categorized of being suppressive of your other brothers and sisters. [But] I have seen tribal and ethnic divisions much worse in other countries.

JC: And assimilation? the ward system?

EC: People from the interior in particular would want their children to be educated and they would literally bring them to the homes of the so-called ruling elite, or middle class, and they would send them to school and have [a] reasonably good education, and mixed with their own families. Nowadays, we have seen that disappear. People are now not inclined because of the difficulty of making ends meet.

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JC: So relations were good between the two groups?

EC: The way I was brought up I didn't see that sort of distinction. We would read about it and hear about it but we went to the same schools. The wards that were in my family from my grandparents interrelated and acted very well. Prior to the '60s, it was a little bit different. In the '60s in particular, we saw a transformation where there was more assimilation and more interaction and development of education and possibilities. [For] anybody who was educated [the chance of] achieving something in that period was greater. As for prejudice against assimilated people, not in my experience, but deep down there might have been.

JC: Now for the down side. I've also heard Tubman's regime described as a police state.

EC: It would be going too far, maybe toward the end of his reign, when he got quite old and suspicious. Perhaps, it was the caliber of people around him, [but] a police state like in Haiti, no. Of course, there's no doubt about it: there were a few families that were running the show politically.

JC: And then he dies and along comes Tolbert. What kind of changes and troubles did the Tolbert administration inherit or bring on itself?

EC: The problem with Tolbert, he was trying to undo everything that Tubman had done. He became very critical of the Tubman years. He tried to change everything. The pace he was doing it [was too fast]. A lot of people questioned his sincerity because it seemed as if he and his immediate family were accumulating a lot of wealth at the expense of the country. People like his brother, who was finance minister, he was undoubtedly the wealthiest man in Liberia and he made his fortune in such a short time. [The] Tolbert family were really getting their tentacles in and unless you were really close to them, you didn't have a piece of the pie. Tubman tried to keep out the communists. Tolbert overnight changed that and upset a lot of people in the ruling and settler groups and they felt he wasn't sincere. Everybody knew he was a capitalist. A lot of

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people used to say that in a few years you would either be working for the Liberian government or the Tolbert family. At the same time, especially when his brother took over finance, it was much more efficient. He was always a businessman and ran it more efficiently, like a business. He hired technocrats to work for him [and] he had the power to give them the support. But when he died, things reverted back to the normal ways and, as a result, the corruption returned.

JC: This is what led to the radicalism and conflict of the 1970s?

EC: There has always been a level of mistrust with the government where you have an undercurrent and potential for agitation. Quite a few of the intellectuals used the situation as a basis to disrupt. When you want to change things, you have to have a cause [like] a lot of this stuff by the progressives in the '70s. These agitators-history has shown that their whole agenda was not to make a difference with the country or institute reform and create a democratic society-for when they had an opportunity to get in power, they were probably more autocratic than the previous regimes. The same guys who had the opportunity in the Doe government, the agitators [who] were brought into the government by Doe, didn't make a lot of difference and some of them ran away. The '70s uprising was more of an economic protest. These guys had the opportunity to make a difference [and] they did not. They were, [to] some extent, more corrupt than the guys they had overthrown.

JC: And how would you characterize the Doe regime? Tribalism? Incompetence? Corruption?

EC: I think they were much more pronounced, more than ever in this country. During the Doe regime where you had a relatively small tribe [that] tried to dominate everything. And when he came to power, he tried to eliminate all the people who joined him in the coup and his tribal people were put in positions that they were not qualified for. At least during Tubman and Tolbert administrations, people were given positions if they had some degree of qualification, education or experience.

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[Under Doe], some people were given very high positions and they could barely read and write. Once you have that kind of situation where people are not given positions in government based on merit, but just some tribal thing, I think that is what started [the conflict]. For instance, in 1990, you had the Krahn against the Gio and the Mano, and the Mandingos on one side and then it reverses. It was not as you would think it would be. Some combatants fought for both sides. [Now] it's the Krahn against everybody else and it is purely because of the way Doe ran the country. And even now, people still talk about how the Krahn people feel that Liberia is theirs. They have a right to come back and rule the country. The level of corruption under Doe was like nothing I had ever seen. So unprofessional and they had never had anything and Doe was under a lot of pressure to give things to his people. They wanted to get rich quick. When Doe came in, the Americans were pressuring him, saying, `look, lets have a democratic election. Tell us how long you are going to stay in.' He said, 'five years' and after five years we were supposed to have free and fair elections. He decided to become a civilian overnight and ran. That's when we [settlers] really saw that things were not going to be alright and started to leave.

JC: And the [General Thomas] Quiwonkpa coup [of 1985]? I've heard rumors that it was a made-up thing, for Doe to use to repress his enemies.

EC: It was a personal thing between the two of them. I don't think it was made up.

JC: But the repression was real. And it seemed ethnically based.

EC: Unlike other places, it was not ethnic. There is no colonial heritage here. And the size of our country, most of the tribes are small and there are so many. The numbers of people are not that great and it is not a crowded country.

JC: So what's led to the fighting since 1990.

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EC: It was professional greed by a lot of warlords. There is a high degree of lack of patriotism and nationalism in the positive sense. Most of these guys who started all of this-they have proven that they did not have the country's interests at heart-it was their own political and economic interests that they were seeking-you see that more and more.

JC: That issue of Liberian patriotism interests me. I mean, there is a whole lot to be proud of in Liberian history-the first republic in Africa and all that. And yet, what can it mean for the vast majority of people here who were not part of that story?

EC: Liberian patriotism is gone. What I saw last year in April-when you had the U.S. government bring so many ships and soldiers here just to rescue a handful of their citizens [can you imagine the cost?]. For instance, officers from the embassy going into dangerous zones just to find one American citizen and transfer him to the embassy to be evacuated. That sort of thing impressed me. In the rear [of my apartment] I could watch the evacuation ... so many ships and soldiers here just to rescue a handful of [American citizens], [he recalls]. And out the front side [of my apartment], I saw Liberians literally harassing one another, looting. It sort of left me feeling very strange. These Americans are incredible. Look how much effort they are making to save their people and we don't care. I saw those youngsters even harassing old people and taking whatever they had in their hands after they had lost everything in their homes and they were coming toward Greystone [Compound, a relatively secure haven opposite the U.S. embassy]. If I hadn't stayed here through all these different things, I would not have believed that our people were capable of doing such things to one another. It left me feeling very strange, and troubled.

JC: What happened to produce this? I mean, in Liberian-African-society, respect for elders is the social glue. What happened?

EC: When I was a young man growing up, I was taught-it was instilled into us- to respect elders and respect authority. All that is gone from seven years of war. Women and children are not respected; they have suffered more than

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anyone else. It was unheard of when I was growing up to harass a little child or a woman. I think whoever takes over the country, that is the first problem they will have to face: love of country, love for your fellow man. During the Doe years, your neighbor would be harassed and you would close your doors rather than going out to find out what was going on in the night, during curfew hours. Before [Doe's time] that would not have happened; the sense of community was there. The only time was if Tubman felt that someone was trying to threaten him, but it wasn't widespread. You can count the number of incidents. During the Doe time, it was happening all the time. Every few months, he would say someone was trying to overthrow him and he would go and grab people and put them in jail or kill them and nobody would ask after these guys. No one would care.

JC: So the breakdown of community can be traced to the Doe years?

EC: Maybe. I have been here all along and, as I say, no obvious reason for it. Other countries, its tribal. Here, it could have been anybody's head on the table. I still can't believe what I saw. I live right up the road and I always tried to get along with my neighbors. But they were the same ones who looted my house. No doubt about it that the fighters came and took what they wanted. But afterwards, the neighbors took what was left. In the old days, if there was a fire in your neighborhood, everybody tried to protect each other. Now, it's stealing each others blankets and dishes and then putting [them] on the street to sell. And they got away with it, still doing it up until now.

JC: Let me turn now to the political situation. A Charles Taylor presidency, what does that mean for Liberia?

EC: Taylor certainly has a lot of charisma and he knows what he wants and he has a lot of money and resources. If you look at some of the people he has around him, then I think we are in for a difficult time. If we have elections, he has [the] upper hand because the [other potential candidates] don't have the resources. From the time he came, that has been his objective and he has

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been getting support. Remember, he was one of the young radicals, started off in the U.S. and came home.

JC: And the settler class. I've heard they're poised to come back in Taylor's camp?

EC: I think it is gone. There has been a lot of intermarriage and assimilation. If we keep hammering at it as the cause of all our problems, I don't think we will liberate ourselves. History is very important, but when you have a crisis, you have to look at present situation and look to the future. If you obsess by what happened in the past, it's difficult to liberate yourself to be doing things that will make a difference for the future.

JC: Speaking of looking to the future. What are your thoughts on a Truth and Reconciliation Commission a la South Africa?

EC: In South Africa, it's much more complex. Our Liberian people are very forgiving and quick to forget. You hit them hard and a few months later you come with some rice and they forget. In South Africa, [it's] much deeper, more atrocities there. [In Liberia], if you create jobs for the people, give them something to look forward to, they will forget.

JC: Does that mean you are optimistic?

EC: Peace is coming. I am very hopeful. I have been around for all of these crises to have first hand knowledge of what was happening. I saw all of what happened. Unfortunately, a lot technocrats have left for other countries and its going to take a lot of incentives to get them to come back. Quite frankly, if that doesn't happen, I don't see how we are going to get this country moving again. Liberia has a lot potential, the resources that we have [and] relatively small population. We have a type of people who if you get good leaders they will follow and if you get bad leaders they will follow. It is a question that the leader is always right.

JC: This July 26 marks the 150th anniversary of Liberian independence. After all you've seen and been through, does it mean anything to you anymore?

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EC: I have not celebrated July 26 in my own heart for many years. I don't feel proud anymore to be a Liberian where I have personally seen the atrocities that we meted out to one another. But I used to be proud. Anywhere you went in Africa, you said you were a Liberian [and] they would say, `ahhh, Tubman.' There was always the history and what we had done. But all of that is gone. Now you go out and they say you Liberians eat people and cut heads off.

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